Trapped ‘cannibal’ miners ‘eat each other’s limbs’ to survive as cops block food supply

Two survivors of a mining disaster in South Africa have claimed some of their colleagues ‘resorted to cannibalism’ in order to survive without food and water for weeks

Two survivors of a horrific mining disaster in South Africa have made the claim that their colleagues were forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive after police blocked their food and water supplies.

The illegal miners, who trespass into old gold mines to scavenge what’s left, found themselves trapped nearly a mile underground at the old Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near Stilfontein in the North West province. This was after police began attempts to force them out by blocking their food and water in August last year. “They cut parts of legs, arms, and ribs for sustenance. They decided it was their only remaining option for survival,” one unnamed survivor told The Telegraph.

He claimed that he and another survivor did not partake in the cannibalism, instead choosing to eat cockroaches to survive once their food supply ran out. The pair had entered the shaft in July 2024 and managed to reach the surface in December.

They described how they used to earn £400 per month when “food, medicine, alcohol and beverages were once plentiful,” but things took a drastic turn as officials cracked down on their activities. Last week, rescuers recovered 78 bodies and 246 survivors from a shaft of one of the country’s deepest mines.

The government has been trying to clamp down on this illegal business, taking a hard-line approach against what it describes as ruthless criminal gangs, reports the Express.

In a desperate bid to flush out armed criminal gangs from perilous mine shafts, police cut off supplies, hoping to “smoke them out”. Officials insisted the trapped miners could escape but were holding out to dodge arrest and deportation.

Over 1,300 miners have surfaced and faced court so far. As time dragged on with dwindling rations, locals feared some were either stuck or too feeble to leave.

Courts eventually green-lit humanitarian aid and a mining rescue team’s intervention. The haunting sight of skeletal survivors and body bags hauled up has sparked outrage, with police facing “massacre” claims and a major trade union federation slamming it as a grotesque example of state neglect.

Yet, Gwede Mantashehe, the mining minister, controversially remarked: “If you go to a dangerous place such as a neglected mine and stay there for about three months, starving yourself to death, how does that become the responsibility of the state?”

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