4 dead at Mandela-linked gold mine

GUARDS at a gold mine jointly owned by relatives of South African president Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela shot and killed at least four illegal miners this week, it has emerged.

Up to 20 illegal miners may have been killed, according to The Sowetan newspaper, which reported details of the incident yesterday.

South African police said they had recovered four bodies from the shaft.

The Grootvlei mine east of Johannesburg is owned by Mr Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma and Mandela's grandson, Zondwa Mandela.

Their company, Aurora, is currently embroiled in a pay dispute with mineworkers they inherited from several mines they bought from an insolvent company.

Paul Mkhabela, who said he used to bring miners working illegally to the mine each day, said only two of the five miners he brought there on Monday this week had survived.

"I always bring them in the morning, drop them near the mine and fetch them the next day," he said. "Yes, they come back with bags of dirty soil they wash to extract the gold."

One of the survivors of the incident, Sam Sithole, 25, told The Sowetan that he went down the shaft with a group of miners including two of his brothers.

"I thought I was going to die. There was gunfire all over.

"I did not know whether to go forward or backwards. I saw one of my brothers fall," he said.

"The killers left me only because they thought I was dead. I pretended I was dead by not moving when they shone a torch in my face."

David Teenage Mnisi, a guard at the mine, said he was on duty on Monday and saw seven other guards armed with rifles and handguns descend into the mine.

Mr Mnisi said after five hours, the guards emerged with five men they said were illegal miners.

They told him they were detaining the five.Mnisi said he had no other details.

Louis Lamsley, the general manager of Aurora mines, said he believed that the victims were illegal gold miners.

"All the indications are that illegal mining was taking place, if I react to the reports of equipment that was found underground - gold extraction equipmen and the vandalism and theft on the surface operations and underground," he said.

The governing African National Congress party condemned the shooting as "senseless" and the trade union confederation Cosatu called for a full investigation.

Cosatu's general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he was "appalled" at the story.

"Aurora is the same company where, for over ten months, workers have been paid piece-meal by the company led by Khulubuse Zuma and Zondwa Mandela.

"They were left to fend for themselves in filthy hostels with no electricity and water and depended on upstream water contaminated with mine acid," Mr Vavi said.

South Africa is one of the world's largest gold producers and has some of the world's deepest mines.

Illegal mining is common, as are deaths due to fires and other accidents in abandoned, unsafe shafts. Last year, more than 80 prospectors were found dead in one of the country's abandoned gold mines.

The illegal miners often spend months underground in order to conceal their activities and police say they are often hired by organised crime rackets, who then re-sell the gold.