Death toll climbs in Stilfontein mine crisis

By Thapelo Molefe and Amy Musgrave

Following three days of intense operations by Mine Rescue Services to save trapped illegal miners at an abandoned Stilfontein mine, it appears that all of them may have been saved and now the task turns to retrieving the bodies of those who died underground.

Since Monday, 246 miners have been rescued and 78 bodies retrieved from the North West mine.

The Gauteng forensic pathology service vans arrived in Stilfontein on Wednesday to help with the number of bodies retrieved.

The operation, one of the largest of its kind in recent years, has been marked by both heartbreak and hope.

Zinzi Tom, a sister of one of the miners, Ayanda, who is yet to be found, turned to the courts to speed up the rescue operations.

She said that seeing the pathology vans broke her spirit, adding that government ministers who visited the scene this