Miner’s hellish 4 days trapped underground

WHEN 22-year-old Mr Rania Moyo left home at around 4am on Thursday last week for work at Velocity 36 Mine in Silobela, he never bothered to bid his parents goodbye as he believed he would return home as usual.

There was no way he could have known that an hour later he was going to be trapped 100 meters underground for the next four days.

When he arrived at work that day, he met his workmates and they proceeded to enter the mine shaft at around 5am. Soon after, the shaft started collapsing but his two workmates managed to get around the initial block to reach the entrance.

They escaped right before a big boulder fell and blocked the opening, trapping Mr Moyo inside the shaft.

“The moment l realised l was trapped underground in that shaft, l prayed to God asking him to accept my soul in heaven because l did not think l would come out alive,” said Mr Moyo, who was rescued on Monday afternoon and is recovering from his home in Silobela.

“It was around 5am and we had just entered the shaft when the mine started caving in. We immediately moved towards the entrance trying to escape before it could get blocked.”

Mr Moyo said he knew death was suddenly catching up with him when he was trapped in the shaft in a space so small that he could not even stretch his legs or sit up straight.

He was trapped in a space so dark he could not even see his own hands.

He said temperatures also dropped and he felt like he was going to freeze inside the shaft that Thursday morning.

“I could not even move a muscle and l knew screaming was not going to help. I do not know when was the last time l prayed, but on that day, l prayed really hard, asking God to accept my soul when l get to heaven. I apologised for all the wrong things that l have done in my life, because l didn’t think I would survive,” said Mr Moyo.

The miner said he is not really sure what day or time it was when he finally heard movement and voices of people outside trying to communicate with him.

“Because l had no food or water, whenever I started feeling weak l would scoop a handful of soil and eat it to try and regain my energy,” Mr Moyo said.