JOHANNESBURG, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen illegal miners were killed and eight others injured after the walls of an excavated area collapsed at a dumping site in South Africa's North West Province, police said Tuesday.
Arthur Adams, North West provincial police commissioner, said in a statement that the incident occurred at the Nkaneng dumping site in Bojanala Sub-District 2, near Rustenburg, and was reported to police at about 9 p.m. local time on Monday.
Preliminary information indicates that a group of suspected illegal miners, locally known as "zama-zamas," were manually digging in an excavated area when the walls caved in, trapping them underground, Adams said.
According to the police, nearby security was alerted by an illegal miner who reported the incident before disappearing. Police were subsequently called to the scene, where they found the bodies of 14 illegal miners.
Eight people were rescued and taken to a local hospital for treatment. Three were discharged after receiving medical care and detained for allegedly contravening the Immigration Act, while the remaining five are still in hospital under police guard.
"An inquest investigation has also been opened to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident," Adams said.
Illegal mining remains a major challenge in South Africa, particularly in areas with abandoned or disused gold and platinum mines. Illegal miners often operate without proper safety equipment or regulatory oversight, sometimes travelling deep underground and remaining there for extended periods.
The activity has also increasingly been linked to organized criminal networks, while the involvement of undocumented migrants has added a law-enforcement and immigration dimension to the problem.
In February, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized the deployment of the South African National Defense Force to assist the police in combating illegal mining and gangsterism. ■