Death of Miners in South Africa a Government Failure

Rights groups are criticizing South Africa’s government for failing to prevent what they call a “massacre” at the Buffelsfontein mine, after security officials cut off food, water, and other essential supplies to miners trapped underground and delayed a rescue operation.On January 16, 246 miners were rescued from an abandoned mineshaft at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, where hundreds of unauthorized miners working illegally in the mines, known colloquially as zama-zamas, had been trapped for months. But the rescue operation also retrieved 87 bodies from the…

© Human Rights Watch - mercredi 22 janvier 2025