Fear has gripped a Limpopo village after 19 miners in the area tested positive for the deadly Covid - 19.

The mineworkers, employees at Marula Platinum Mine in Diphale village, tested positive to the virus - prompting the mine to shut down operations.

According to health MEC Phophi Ramathuba, this was the highest number of positive cases to be recorded in a day in the province.

One of the mineworkers, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sowetan he was worried that some of his colleagues who travelled from other provinces could be spreading the virus at work.

"I stay in the village and there were no cases of the virus before the mines opened. It is very difficult to keep social distancing in the mine and in production, we use same equipment," he said.

According to the miner, many of those who tested positive were working at a plant section and blamed those who travelled from afar.

"As I'm talking to you, I'm concerned because I work with those people. I think our bosses should have not allowed us back to work or at least they should have taken precautionary measures.

"Some of my colleagues used public transport from the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, and again they interacted with people upon arriving in this village," he said.

Another miner said he received an SMS informing him not to report for duty because the mine has been closed.

Ramathuba said following President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement to relax the regulations, the mine was proactive by inviting all its 3,300 employees through SMS and emails to report for duty.

"About 2,700 employees who are residents of this province responded between 17th and 20th of April where they were screened and those who met the criteria for testing were tested and none of them tested positive," the MEC said.

"A further 130 employees only reported for screening on the 4th of May and when asked where they have been, they did not give clear answers. That's when the mine subjected all of them to a compulsory testing."

Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said the mineworkers were detected following stringent and comprehensive screening, testing and tracing protocols.

"Implats has identified 19 positive cases during the week, all of them asymptomatic. Of these cases, 14 were identified as the result of proactive testing of employees returning to work," Theron said.

"None of these employees had started work at the mine. Of the remaining five, one case was identified as a primary contact and the remaining four were identified through contact tracing."

Some residents said they were worried that the operation of mines will turn the mining town of Burgersfort into an epicentre. "We urge our government to trace all those who made contact with the infected miners to test them, particularly in the villages. Our mothers and fathers, and the elderly people, will be hard hit by the virus because they are renting out rooms to the mineworkers," said one resident.