'Kill the people': How men were left to starve in a South African gold mine

How men were left to starve in a South African gold mine. This image was created by Mohamed Hussein using the artificial intelligence (AI) tool Midjourney. Ayanda Ndabeni watched the faint glow from his headlamp fight the vast darkness 1,500 metres (4,920 feet) below ground. His miner's lamp had lasted for more than a week after he was lowered down into the shaft of the gold mine. But now the batteries were dying. He gently flipped the plastic switch of his lamp, turning it off, and the trapped men around him became shadows. In the stifling heat and humidity, their anxiety pressed in from all sides. Ayanda had descended into Shaft 10 of the Buffelsfontein mine in late September 2024, lowered by a team of nearly 20 men operating ropes and a pulley above ground. That day, he'd spotted police vehicles near the mine's entrance. The 36-year-old assumed it was just routine patrols around the mine system, which is 2km (1.2 miles) deep. But then the rope pulley, via which food, water, batteries and other items arrived, stopped moving. The shouting that usually indicated the rope operators were sending down a man or supplies also fell silent. When huge rocks came crashing down the shaft, they knew it was a warning. The men whispered of their growing fears that something was very wrong on the surface. Patrick Ntsokolo was also in Shaft 10. He was a few hundred metres higher up than Ayanda and had arrived in late July. Patrick was new to the mines. Tasked by the leaders of the artisanal miners with collecting the food, water and alcohol lowered down by the rope pulley, he hauled supplies along the slippery tunnels to small shops.