The Stilfontein mine is a crime scene,” Ramaphosa said, adding that police must secure the area while ensuring the miners' safe return...."

South Africa’s government says it will not help an estimated 4,000 illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country’s North West province as part of an official policy against illegal mining.

South Africa's government says it will let thousands of illegal miners starve until they accept their fate and emerge from an abandoned shaft to face arrest.

By Thando Hlophe STILFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) -Desperate relatives of possibly hundreds of illegal miners stuck underground in a disused mine shaft in South Africa waited outside the site on Friday in the hope that their loved ones would emerge safely.

Several hundred people are believed to remain in an illegal mine in South Africa after authorities cut off their supplies and refused to help them, in a dramatic bid to crack down on the industry, CNN’s Victoria Rubadiri reports.

Desperate family members of illegal miners believed to number in the hundreds waited outside a disused mine shaft in South Africa on Friday in the hope of their loved ones emerging from the hole in the ground.

Police say they are trying to force the miners — believed to have been underground for several weeks — to resurface