Manhunt for alleged illegal mining kingpin ‘Tiger’ after escape from custody

Tiger

Johannesburg – Police in South Africa said on Monday they had launched a manhunt for the alleged “kingpin” behind an illegal mining operation where scores of bodies have been recovered after he escaped from custody.

The suspect, known as Tiger, was among 1,907 clandestine miners who were arrested upon resurfacing at the disused gold shaft in Stilfontein, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, police said in a statement.

Provincial police major general Patrick Asaneng called Tiger’s escape an “embarrassment” and vowed those responsible would be brought to justice.

Police said they believed Tiger, a Lesotho national whose real name is James Neo Tshoaeli, had received help from “officials” to escape after being detained last week.

Capping a months-long effort to clear the shaft that descends 2.6 kilometres (1.6 miles), at least 246 people, many emaciated and frail, and 78 bodies of people who died underground were brought to the surface over several days last week.

A total of 87 bodies were retrieved from the mine over the months since police began trying to clear it in August.

Asaneng “warned that heads will roll once they find those officials that aided the kingpin to escape from police custody”, the police statement said.

“Extensive investigations and tracing operations are under way to find those officials who aided his escape between shaft 11 and the Stilfontein police holding cells,” it added.

Police said Tiger was never booked into a station where the miners were taken after resurfacing, nor was he admitted to hospital.

The miners who were detained alleged that Tiger was also responsible for some of the deaths, assaults and torture that they have claimed took place underground, police said.

The illegal miners, most of them foreign nationals, had occupied the shaft – once part of South Africa’s vast mining industry.

No longer viable for commercial mining, the men entered illicitly hoping to eke out a living by scraping the last flakes of gold from the mine walls.

Locally known as “zama zamas” – “those who try” in the Zulu language – the miners frustrate mining companies and are accused of criminality by residents.

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