All 955 trapped Sibanye Gold miners resurface

WELKOM — All 955 miners who were trapped underground for more than a day following a power cut have resurfaced, mining company Sibanye Gold said yesterday morning.

“Everybody’s out,” spokesperson James Wellsted said, adding that there were “cases of dehydration and high blood pressure but nothing serious”.

The Sibanye-Stillwater mining company said a massive power outage caused by a storm had prevented lifts from bringing the night shift to the surface at the Beatrix gold mine, in the small town of Theunissen near Welkom.

On Thursday night Sibanye Gold said that 955 miners were still trapped and they were working to restore power.

The electric cable outage was caused by a storm on Wednesday night.

The miners were in a ventilated area and had access to food and water.

During the course of Thursday they managed to rescue 272 miners from shaft four and 64 from shaft one.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane is expected to visit the mine yesterday. — Sapa BANJUL — Gambian police arrested a university lecturer and kept him in overnight detention for questioning the president’s ability to maintain national security in a newspaper interview, he said on Thursday.

Campaigners said the arrest was a worrying echo of restrictions on freedom of speech under the former regime of Yahya Jammeh, who was forced to leave the West African country for exile in Equatorial Guinea a year ago.

The new government has repeatedly promised to protect human rights, including freedom of expression and Press freedom, which were tightly controlled under Jammeh.

Ismaila Ceesay, an outspoken political science lecturer at the University of The Gambia, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and charged with incitement to violence after several hours of questioning.

“I was released this morning. My lawyer said they have told him that they have dropped the charges and that they would apologise,” he told AFP.

A nightime vigil for his release was held by journalists and campaigners outside the police station where Ceesay was questioned, along with a concerted social media campaign against his arrest.

Ceesay had recently given an interview to the Voice newspaper in which he said pockets of the Gambian military “feel rejected by the adminstration” which could “cause pockets of mutiny”.

President Adama Barrow has relied on Senegalese troops deployed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) for the last year as he reforms the country’s security forces, sections of which are believed to maintain loyalty to Jammeh.

“Did (Barrow) one day visit any military barracks since he came to power? That should have been his first mission,” he told the Gambian daily.

The police told him that “military officers could use that statement to say that if Dr Ceesay could say this, it means they can do it”, he said. — AFP JOHANNESBURG — Springs police have arrested the wife and son of a farmer accused of force-feeding faeces to one of his employees.

Springs police spokesperson Captain Johannes Ramphora said the two were arrested on Thursday on charges of crimen injuria, assault, kidnapping and defamation of character.

Ramphora said the farmer, his wife and their son took part in assaulting and humiliating the worker at their farm near Endicott, east of Johannesburg, before forcing the worker to eat faeces.

He said the incident occurred in early December and the worker was allegedly tortured after he failed to switch on the engine of a septic tank pump on the family’s smallholding outside Springs.

“The farmer’s wife and his son were arrested today, but we are still looking for the farmer,” Ramphora said. — AP