A suspected illegal miner who was part of the more than 100 men who were rescued from an abandoned mine in Sabie, Mpumalanga, has told of how “kidnappers” plied him with alcohol and promised him a job, only to take him to a disused mine the following day and forced him at gunpoint to go underground.
Speaking to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, as he is not allowed to speak to the media, a police officer who was at the scene of the rescue mission said the Mozambican national told them he was unemployed at the time and living at an informal settlement in Sabie when he met the “kidnappers” at a shebeen.
Excited at the prospect of landing a job, he claimed he had in fact been kidnapped and made to work underground until police rescued him and others last week.
The man, who is now in police custody because he is in SA illegally, was rescued along with eight suspected kidnappers believed to have coerced him and others into illegal mining.
The alleged kidnappers – William Modise, Khantlapane Mathotta, Thabiso Lebesa, Mokola Mothae, Khoase Mokhupi, Mankane Mochoko and Foka Mochatso – appeared at the Sabie magistrate’s court on Monday where they faced charges of kidnapping in addition to illegal mining and contravention of the Immigration Act.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli told Sowetan investigations have shown that the eight men were part of those who recruited and coerced some of the illegal miners to go underground.
“We have released 10 of the suspects who are South Africans after we found they were victims in all this. They were recruited forcefully to work in the mine. We regard all the other illegal miners as victims of kidnapping, but have charged them with contravention of the Immigration Act. We have separately charged eight of the illegal miners who are foreign nationals with kidnapping and illegal mining,” he said.
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