Death of 21 Krugersdorp zama zamas caused by trench cave-in

The 21 dead suspected illegal miners found in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, are believed to have been killed when a trench they were working in collapsed on them.  

TimesLIVE has learnt that the suspected illegal miners died in shaft 9 on the West Rand on Tuesday.

An illegal miner, who asked not to be named, said the bodies were moved from the shaft to prevent police from investigating the scene where they worked. 

However, police spokesperson Col Brenda Muridili said she could not confirm that the deaths were as a result of a collapsed trench. 

The illegal miner said the trench’s stability was compromised by the heavy rainfall in the area. 

“The trench was not stable enough because of the rain. Some of us decided to take a break from mining when it started raining because we do not have enough support structure for the excavations we make. We use dynamite and that moves the earth, which makes it riskier when it rains,” he said. 

Another illegal miner said they warned the deceased to desist from mining until the rain stopped. 

“I hear the community speculating that these deaths could have been a result of fighting. It's not true. This is something that happens when you do our line of work,” he said. 

Despite the claims made by the two illegal miners, Muridili said only postmortems would determine the cause of death. She added no foul play was suspected.

Asked why the police believed that bodies were moved from the scene of their deaths, she said: “Preliminary investigations by seasoned detectives based on evidence found on the scene suggested they did not die where they were found.” 

On Thursday, the bodies were placed in white body bags next to a pile of sand as members of the police search and rescue team combed the cordoned-off scene.

TimesLIVE