Johannesburg - A woman sustained serious injuries, including fractures to her legs, when she fell down an illegal mineshaft.
According to ER24, there have been at least five similar accidents in the past six months.
In the latest incident, the 51-year-old woman was walking through a plantation near the Sabie road in White River, Mpumalanga, when she fell into the shaft.
“Those who dig the shaft are unable to cover or refill it. It becomes covered with bushes and members of the public can’t see them,” said ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring.
“In this case, the woman was walking through the plantation when she fell through the shaft, which was not visible because of bushes and overgrown grass,” he said.
Paramedics were lowered into the hole; they treated her with advanced life support, gave her painkillers and stabilised her back. Two-and-a-half hours later, she was lifted out of the shaft and transported to hospital.
“It’s a long and tedious process. We have to be extremely careful… she was conscious through the entire process. She’s in a stable condition but will not be released from hospital for the next few days,” Meiring said.
He explained that these incidents have happened frequently between Joburg and Mbombela.
“In and around Gauteng, wherever there is an old mine dump or mineshaft, you can rest assured that there are illegal mineshafts.”
Meiring said illegal miners and members of the public were the main victims.
“Incidents range from people falling through the shaft to rockfalls where illegal miners are working and even assaults by rival illegal miners. Sometimes injuries can be minor and at other times very serious,” Meiring added.
He said there had been situations where illegal miners stayed down in shafts for a week at a time.
In February last year, 200 illegal miners were trapped in an abandoned mineshaft in Benoni.
A rival group of illegal miners had reportedly thrown boulders down a shaft, trapping the other group underground and stealing their gold. Two men were killed.
The Star