Bodies seen in videos from abandoned shaft

Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, where dozens of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.

They have been there since police operations targeting illegal mining began last year across the country.

In one video, which the BBC has not been able to independently verify, bodies can be seen wrapped in makeshift body bags. The second shows the emaciated forms of some of the miners still alive.

The long-awaited rescue operation, which the court last week ordered the government to facilitate, began on Monday.

Last year, the authorities took a hard line, arguing that miners had deliberately entered the mine in Stilfontein without permission, and blocked food and water supplies.

In November, a government minister said: “We will get rid of them by smoking.”

More than 100 illegal miners, known locally as “Zama Zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crackdown began at the mine, located about 145 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

But the authorities have not confirmed this number because it has not yet been “verified by an official source,” a spokesman told the BBC.

Hundreds are believed to still be in the mine while more than 1,000 have emerged in the past few months.

In one video posted by the General Industrial Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirt floor. Their faces became blurred. A man's voice can be heard off camera saying that the men are hungry and need help.

“We started showing you the bodies of those who died underground,” he says.

“And these are not all of them… Do you see how people are suffering? Please, we need help.”

In the other video, a man says: “This is hunger. People are dying of hunger.” He then estimates the death toll at 96 and asks for help, food and supplies.

The union says the footage was filmed on Saturday.

At a press conference held on Monday near the site of the rescue operation, GYUSA leadership, along with community figures, said the videos shared “painted a very bleak picture” of the underground situation.

“What happened here should be called what it is; it is the Stilfontein massacre. Because what this footage shows is a pile of human corpses, of miners who died needlessly,” said Giosa president Mamitlwe Sibe.

He held the authorities responsible for what he described as the “treacherous policy” they deliberately followed.

The Department of Mineral Resources, which is leading the rescue effort, told the BBC that Monday's operation included lowering a cage that had been lifted after loading it with people.

This structure is designed to hold six or seven people, depending on their weight, according to Giusa. He was descending the shaft – descending about two kilometers – every hour. By the end of Monday, 26 miners had been recovered alive along with nine bodies, the union said.

Department of Mineral Resources spokesperson Makhosonke Buthelezi could not confirm whether the priority would be to recover those who died or those who needed medical attention.

The department will hold a briefing with the Police Ministry on Tuesday to provide an update on the operation.