Twitter: @GwedeMantashe1
Mineral Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe says the government needs more cooperation from its counterparts in Lesotho in curbing cross-border crime.
He visited the Virginia Mine near Welkom in the Free State on Monday, where at least 31 suspected illegal miners lost their lives in a ventilation shaft.
The illegal miners are believed to be Lesotho nationals.
"If all those bodies are from Lesotho, it means that there is a responsibility equal to what we have as a responsibility that the Lesotho government has. They cannot come to us on the basis of 'we have bodies underground, please take them out', Mantashe said.
Due to the lethal amounts of methane underground, only three bodies have been brought to the surface by other miners thus far.
Mantashe’s visit comes after the department received communication from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in Lesotho that a group of suspected illegal miners died in May.
The shaft was last operational in the 1990s.
