The SA Federation of Trade Unions said it has ascertained that the thousands of miners had no viable exit without being rescued from the deep mine shaft.

“Despite the lies and misinformation propagated by some government officials and uninformed South Africans, Saftu has verified the following facts – there was no viable exit. The only feasible way out of Shaft 11 was through the makeshift community-operated structure using ropes, a process that took nearly an hour per worker,” said Vavi.

“Shaft 10’s crawl path - while there was a theoretical escape route via Shaft 10, it required 37 hours of crawling, an impossible feat for miners already weakened by hunger and dehydration. There was no connection to other shafts. Claims that miners could have exited via other shafts, such as Margaret Shaft 5, are baseless as these shafts are not physically connected to Shaft 11.”

Saftu insists the government knew these facts but chose inaction, leaving the miners to die a slow and agonizing death.

According to Vavi, the Stilfontein tragedy is eerily reminiscent of the Marikana massacre, where 34 miners were killed by live ammunition.

“In Stilfontein, hunger has been used as a weapon to achieve the same deadly outcome. This is nothing short of the systematic killing of 59 workers, with the death toll likely to rise as more bodies are recovered. The cold, nonchalant manner in which government officials, including Minister Gwede Mantashe, treat this needless massacre is testament of how cheap black life is,” said Vavi.

On Tuesday, after visiting Stilfontein, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu expressed regret over the deaths of the desperate miners, where dozens of bodies have now been extracted.

In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Tuesday night, Mchunu said government never suggested that it would never rescue the scores of stranded miners.

“We have never ever been unwilling to assist, and I think I need to straighten that record. There is no way we would have repeatedly gone there, spoke about this and even the design of operation Vala Umgodi never suggested directly or indirectly that government is unwilling to assist people to go out (of the mine),” said Mchunu.