South Africa buries unclaimed bodies of illegal miners

The Northwest provincial authorities said no family members came to claim the 30 bodies. More were expected to be buried in the coming days.

In total, 78 corpses were recovered during an operation to get illegal miners - also known as zama zamas - out of a decomissioned gold mine in Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg in January.

Most of the miners hailed from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique.

So far, only 25 bodies have been claimed and handed over to relatives, according to the province's department of health.

The province explained that the law only allows it to keep bodies for 30 days after which they are interred as unclaimed persons.

Nearly 2000 illegal miners were arrested at the old gold mine in Stilfontein. Of these, 1,128 are from Mozambique, 473 from Zimbabwe, and 197 from Lesotho.

South African authorities were accused by activists and rights groups of using starvation to push the miners out of the pits where they had barricaded themselves.

In August of 2024, police stopped food and water supplies from being taken down the discontinued mine in an attempt to force people to the surface.

The South African government defended the police siege on the mine as necessary to fight crime and illegal mining.