Survivor tells how trapped miners ate human flesh and cockroaches to survive
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is to hold hearings into the tragedy at Stilfontein gold mine.
More than 90 people died when police were deployed to 'smoke out' illegal miners - zama zamas.
Some of the survivors intend to testify before the SAHRC and some police officers may speak out about wrongdoing by colleagues.
Zama zama miner Patrick Ntsokolo saw colleagues eating cockroaches and even dead bodies underground after police from Operation Vala Umgodi blocked deliveries to illegal miners at Stilfontein.
He hopes to tell his story to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), GroundUp reports.
Ntsokolo, a 40-year-old father of six children, survived underground for 18 days with no food except scraps of expired goods. He said he would be willing to testify during upcoming hearings of the SAHRC, but had not yet been approached.
A date for the SAHRC hearings has yet to be announced, but the 30 May deadline for public submissions has closed.
In an interview, Ntsokolo said he witnessed fellow miners succumb to hunger and eat human flesh. This corroborates media reports and affidavits from several miners that were submitted to the Constitutional Court.
'We tried to tell them, 'hey man, you cannot do that'. They said these human bodies are like pork,' said Ntsokolo. Miners were drinking brackish salty water, he said.
During Operation Vala Umgodi, the police were assigned to 'smoke out' illegal miners from the hijacked gold mine. The operation garnered global attention in January, when images were broadcast showing survivors - and body bags - being pulled to the surface from Shaft 11 in a metal cage during a court-ordered rescue operation.
'Everyone wanted to come out… Everyone was like: 'Being in jail is much better than being in this jail of the mine'.'
Ntsokolo made his break 1.2km underground by making his way to Shaft 10.
'I told myself, I am not going to die here. I have to go out. God, please help me, I am not going to die here.'
He surfaced five days later, on Christmas Day, and was arrested immediately.
After what we've been through, when we got to the surface, the police were pointing guns at us. They saw us as hardcore criminals.
Ntsokolo was charged with trespassing and illegal mining. On 29 May 2025, he was sentenced to seven months in prison or a R7 000 fine. He said he spent four days behind bars while arranging payment.
'I'm ready to tell the Human Rights Commission everything that happened,' he said.
'They need to know the truth.'
Amid a death toll of at least 93, the government's Natjoints police-led operation is accused of effectively trapping illegal miners underground for months without food, water or medicine.
At the time, the police presented a united front. But, months later, and with the HRC inquiry under way, it seems some police officers might speak out about alleged wrongdoing.
Nomazulu Moyo/GroundUp
Johannes Dire, North West Provincial Secretary Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), said that the union was aware of accusations of misconduct within the police. But he said the inquiry would likely clear the police of wrongdoing.
'Our members acted within the confinement of the law, and therefore, Popcru supports [the inquiry],' he said.
'Police officers are used to external investigation, and it wouldn't be a new issue.'
But the union would support whistleblowers, as it had always done, he said.
This reporter visited Stilfontein numerous times from January to April 2025, interviewing miners, civil society organisations and police officers.
An officer who is facing serious legal challenges spoke to GroundUp anonymously, out of fear of reprisal.
He claimed that if Operation Vala Umgodi hadn't blocked the community from lowering food into the mines, lives could have been saved.
'People died because those officers chose power over humanity.'
He said members of the Vala Umgodi task force removed ropes used by community members to deliver supplies to trapped miners, cutting off their lifeline.
'They didn't just target illegal miners - they robbed them, beat them, took their IDs and passports, even when valid. And they did it with soldiers by their side,' he claimed.
Tensions ran high between local police, like this officer, and officers deployed from other provinces. The officer claimed locals were often excluded from Vala Umgodi due to suspicion of corruption.
'There are corrupt officers, yes. Some used police vans to deliver food to the miners. But not all of us were corrupt,' he said.
'We were willing to help, but we were shut out.'
Nomazulu Moyo/GroundUp
Dire confirmed that Popcru had received 'a number of complaints' about strife between police, many of which were 'addressed expeditiously'.
'The unfortunate part has always been that the result of operations creates overwhelming situations at the police stations. That's why maximum capacity is needed,' he said.
'Still, we are open to external investigations.'
He added that local officers wished to be part of Operation Vala Umgodi, but that was 'impossible due to the magnitude of the operation'.
SAPS police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe responded: 'No local police officer was excluded. The reason we utilise dedicated teams is to ensure we don't remove resources from local police stations so that day-to-day policing continues with required capacity.'
A pillar of the inquiry is likely to be testimony from critics of the operation who have stated that miners who died were trapped inside the mine because they were too weak and too far away from the exit shafts.
During the standoff at Stilfontein, the government defended the operation as essential to fight crime. Vala Umgodi involves multiple departments and has been rolled out in numerous provinces, with operations ongoing.
Police said that exit points were established for resurfacing.
And in a statement in December, Natjoints said that miners had the 'capability to exit the underground tunnels independently… Their delayed emergence appears to be a tactic to evade arrest by law enforcement agencies'.
After the mass retrieval of bodies in January, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said the miners had gone underground on their own volition.
'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?' he told the media, adding that the mine owners - the Chinese-owned Buffelsfontein Gold Company - should be held accountable.
In a March parliamentary reply, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said that in Stilfontein, 1 916 miners had been arrested and charged with illegal mining, illegal immigration, possession of gold-bearing material and unlawful possession of explosives.
The total cost of the operation, he said, had been more than R36.7 million.
Now, in June, the North West health department has begun mass burials of unclaimed bodies.
Besides investigating the conduct of Vala Umgodi officers, the HRC will also examine the impact of illegal mining on human rights in communities, and gaps in the policy framework on artisanal mining.
Civil society grouping MACUA (Mining Affected Communities United in Action) which raised the alarm last year over the plight of the miners underground, plans to testify.
In a damning written submission to the HRC, MACUA refers to the 'Stilfontein massacre', claiming that 'state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings' had been carried out under the pretext of combatting illegal mining.
MACUA says the HRC did not respond fast enough.
For those who lived through the operation - on the ground or underground - accountability is long overdue.
'I'm very hurt by what the government and police did to us,' Ntsokolo said. 'We're still waiting for someone to care.'
'I said we must help those who are weak to get out first'
Ayanda Ndabini, 36, spent nearly a month trapped underground in Shaft 11. He went down on 20 September with food, paraffin, and a rough plan.
But by November, everything had collapsed - supplies, the communication systems, sense of time, and, almost, the will to live.
'Food finished and we started trying to look for a way to other shafts, like Margaret Shaft, trying to check if we can find a way to get out from there,' he said.
'But we failed… we didn't find any way leading there. We then came back and sat down,' he said during an interview in mid-February.
What followed was a slow unravelling of human dignity in the underground dark.
'Some people then started eating cockroaches. They would hide when eating them, but you'd see them gathering cockroaches and putting them in bottles. Then they'd make a fire and fry them.'
Nomazulu Moyo/GroundUp
Communication with the surface, once maintained by handwritten notes passed through a bucket-and-rope system, disintegrated in early November.
'We started panicking when we noticed that instead of the rope coming in there [were] stones being thrown in - and then we immediately knew that there might be police outside.'
Then there was a shift after community leaders pleaded with police, and the miners got word that help had arrived and they would begin to be pulled out. They pleaded for food, and they were given supplies of porridge and Mageu.
On 12 November, a letter came, asking Ndabini to exit.
'I said we must rather help those who are weak and can die anytime to get out first. We already had one dead body. I was hungry too, but I chose those who were weak to go first.'
The group began prioritising the most vulnerable. Then on the morning of 15 November, Ndabini surfaced.
'I told them I'd report everything to the community as soon as I got out and ask for more food to be lowered. People underground were perishing - many couldn't even stand. Even those we brought up were immediately taken to hospital.'
He claimed that food supplies were suspended again on 16 November and resumed on 22 November.
This investigation was produced by the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project, a project of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation funded by the European Union.
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