By: Natasha Archary

Over 400 miners are still trapped in a hostage situation at Gold One Modder East Mine, following several dismissals at the mine last week.
This follows disciplinary hearings at Gold One after workers staged a sit-in at the mine in October for three-days over union representation.
The miners have been underground since Thursday, 07 December, and are said to be running out of essentials.
Management at Gold One say they have sent down water, but cannot send food to the miners because they do not encourage such situations as it poses a threat to employees.
Mounting tension during the disciplinary hearings led to the death of a senior official last week, who was gunned down.
According to reports, three miners managed to escape, while two others were released due to their medical conditions.
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe said the situation at Gold One is precarious as it is being classified as a hostage matter, as people are bein held against their will.
“I was at Gold One yesterday (Saturday, 09 December), trying to deal with the situation of resolving a sit-in, where we deal with the demands of workers and understand why they’re having a sit-in.
But today (Sunday, 10 December), the situation changed dramatically, it became a hostage drama, in the sense that three people came out heavily beaten, and once you begin to beat people up, it means they are held against their will.
Therefore it should be dealt with as an offence that requires police intervention.”
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe
Mantashe shared in an update with Newzroom Afrika that one of the miners who surfaced was given a letter of demands, allegedly from Amcu, over a number of issues which must be responded to within hours.
The Minister says there were threats that if the demands were not met timeously, that miners lives would be at risk.
Negotiations are underway to resolve the issues and have the miners return to the surface without any further injuries. This is being dealt with by the police who have since been handed the case, and are equipped to deal with hostage dramas.
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