Families of trapped miners gather at Sibanye-Stillwater mine

Family members of some trapped mine workers have arrived at the Sibanye-Stillwater Beatrix mine outside Theunissen in the Free State.

More than 900 miners have been trapped since Wednesday night following a power failure which was caused by a severe storm.

The rescue operation is still underway.

Free State AMCU chairperson Xolani Bokoloshe says the situation remains dire.

“The situation is not good at all, but we see the employer is trying to rescue those employees. But according to us as the union we don’t see any improvement in terms of rescuing those mine workers on which to us is a serious issue,” said Bokoloshe.

Meanwhile, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) has lambasted the Sibanye-Sillwater Beatrix mine for failing to prepare for emergencies.

AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa says the mine did not have functioning back-up generators to avert such eventualities.

“Of which this raises serious concern to us that the company are not prepared to put money on avoidance measures. And those workers since they are trapped from last night up to this point in time, there’s no supplement; no water, no food. Many of those workers they are under medication and also those workers they are being limited to take food underground because of what they call, they are supplying illegal miners with the food,” said Mathunjwa.

The operations at the mine have been suspended. Workers who were scheduled for night shift are standing outside the mine gate.

Watch the SABC’s interview with mine’s spokesperson:

ANC CALLS on GOVERNMENT to SPARE NO EFFORT to RESCUE TRAPPED MINERS (Text)