‘Kidnappers gave me alcohol, forced me down shaft at gunpoint’

Illegal mining suspect tells how he ended up underground

A suspected illegal miner who was part of the more than 100 men who were rescued from an abandoned mine in Sabie, Mpumalanga, has told of how "kidnappers" plied him with alcohol and promised him a job, only to take him to a disused mine the following day and forced him at gunpoint to go underground.

Speaking to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, as he is not allowed to speak to the media, a police officer who was at the scene of the rescue mission said the Mozambican national told them he was unemployed at the time and living at an informal settlement in Sabie when he met the "kidnappers" at a shebeen.

Excited at the prospect of landing a job, he claimed he had in fact been kidnapped and made to work underground until police rescued him and others last week.

The man, who is now in police custody because he is in SA illegally, was rescued along with eight suspected kidnappers believed to have coerced him and others into illegal mining.

The alleged kidnappers – William Modise, Khantlapane Mathotta, Thabiso Lebesa, Mokola Mothae, Khoase Mokhupi, Mankane Mochoko and Foka Mochatso – appeared at the Sabie magistrate's court on Monday where they faced charges of kidnapping in addition to illegal mining and contravention of the Immigration Act.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli told Sowetan investigations have shown that the eight men were part of those who recruited and coerced some of the illegal miners to go underground.

"We have released 10 of the suspects who are South Africans after we found they were victims in all this. They were recruited forcefully to work in the mine. We regard all the other illegal miners as victims of kidnapping, but have charged them with contravention of the Immigration Act. We have separately charged eight of the illegal miners who are foreign nationals with kidnapping and illegal mining," he said.

We regard all the other illegal miners as victims of kidnapping, but have charged them with contravention of the Immigration Act.Col Donald Mdhluli

According to the police officer, the Mozambican man was unable to say when he went underground. He said when he was at the shebeen, the people who would later take him to the abandoned mine, bought him alcohol and asked him asked if he was not interested in a job.

Unable to believe his luck, he said he was and the following morning at 4am, they were at his gate in three cars packed with other men and ready to take him to his new job, said the officer.

According to the officer, although the man said he didn't know what or where the new job would be, the route they took leads to a timber plantation farm and he thought it was where he would be working.

However, he was taken to an abandoned mine, where he and the other men were allegedly forced at gunpoint to go down the shaft.

He also revealed that some of the men that had plied him with alcohol and also promised him a job went down the shaft with him and the other men and guarded them day and night at gunpoint as they worked.

It is not yet known what happened to their weapons.

All the men who were rescued and are not from South Africa face charges related to being in South Africa illegally.

Mdhluli said the decision to charge the eight differently was because "our investigation have proved that they were part of the kingpins who forcefully recruited these others to mine illegally after luring them with work opportunities to come. We don't know if those illegal immigrants had their documents taken but our investigation will tell us as it progresses."

A rescue mission found that three suspected zama zamas died, possibly from starvation, as they had not eaten for about three weeks.

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