By: Natasha Archary

All 447 miners at Gold Mine, Modder East have resurfaced after 5-days, coming out in groups of 40.
While the situation at the mine has been labelled a hostage drama by Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, the miners maintain this was a voluntary sit-in to demand attention from the employer over their rights.
This after 20 miners reportedly collapsed inside the mine after being holed up from Thursday, 07 December.
The miners shared that they were collapsing from lack of food, water and supplies, and deny reports that employees were being held against their will.
However, Mantashe shared that three miners who managed to escape from the shaft reported being physically assaulted.
Head of Legal at Gold One mine, Ziyaad Hassan confirmed with Newzroom Afrika that at least 10 miners were assaulted after an escalation in violence occured on Sunday.
“The situation at the mine is critical. There was an unfortunate escalation in violence underground yesterday, (Sunday, 10 December). Over the course of Friday, 08 and Saturday, 09 December things remained fairly calm but, yesterday there were several assaults, attempts to escape, 8 people were released yesterday evening, one of whom is recovering in hospital.
We are assessing the health condition of the others.”
The miners say they staged a sit-in following several dismissals at the mine last week.
This comes after disciplinary hearings at Gold One after workers staged a similar sit-in at the mine in October for 3-days over union representation.
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