After the 13 bodies were brought to the surface at Gloria mine and everyone left the mine until Monday, except for the security guards, a guard was beaten up badly in the early hours of the morning on Saturday.
13 bodies were brought to the surface on Friday, February 22, further mayhem unfolded at the Koornfontein plant 02, which is part of Gloria section.
18 bodies in total have been retrieved of which 16 of them have been identified by the next of kin as Basotho nationals and one South African; the remaining two bodies are still unidentified and unclaimed.
An unfortunate incident occurred on the mine on Saturday morning, February 23 when a group of approximately 15 men stormed into the premises, attacking security officers who were on duty and in the process severely injured one of them by senselessly kicking him in the face, before damaging their reaction vehicle’s windscreen.
Police had to be called and on their arrival, the group scattered in different directions.
Emergency services responded to the scene and the security guard was taken to a local hospital for his facial injuries.
At this stage it is not clear why these men were at the mine but cable theft cannot be ruled out.
“How much more do they want to steal from this mine,” said an employee.
An earnest appeal is hereby made to community members who are staying in and around these mines to refrain from damaging the infrastructure of these mines.
In essence, no one has the right to trespass on someone else’s property as that is purely criminal.
The Provincial Commissioner of the Police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma said, “that whilst the province is currently facing a challenge regarding the retrieval of bodies which some are allegedly still remaining trapped in the mine shafts, there are individuals who still have the same criminal intentions, risking their lives in the process, thereby causing more problems for authorities by becoming part of the statistics.”
Lt Gen Zuma further said, “Such criminal tendencies will never be tolerated at any time. He called on law-abiding citizens as well as concerned foreign nationals, to cooperate with the police by volunteering information so that these thieves could be stopped in their tracks.”
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