- Over 60 illegal gold miners in South Africa have died of suffocation after a fire gutted a disused mineshaft over the weekend at Eland shaft, in the central Free State province, Harmony Gold Mining said in a statement.
According to the company, illegal miners had brought the bodies of 36 others to the surface at the weekend, saying it was too dangerous to send its own employees to go underground to search for more bodies.
Harmony said illegal mining often goes unnoticed because miners can sneak past security at one mine and exit from one owned by a different company kilometres away.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the solidarity labour union called for government investigations to unravel the puzzle of missing illegal mines in South Africa.
An underground fire already killed 23 illegal miners in 2007, also in South Africa's mining dominated Free State province.
In another incidence, Harmony has reported that 294 so-called "criminal miners" were arrested in a two-week crackdown on illegal mining in one of its abandoned shafts. South African police statements said the detainees include South African miners and those from neighbouring countries Lesotho and Mozambique.
Harmony said it tightened security to prevent people from illegally entering its mines in South Africa, which has some of the world's deepest and most dangerous shafts.
About a 10th of the gold mined in the country is stolen every year, according to the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. This sums up to a large black economy, given the size of South Africa's mining sector.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
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