(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-04 21:58

"Most of the people are scared and we also have some women miners there underground," said Thibile.

Rescued miners emerged from the shaft with their faces etched with dust and the lamps on their hardhats still lit. "We are still all right. I am a bit relieved but very, very hungry," miner Jerry Lepolese said after.

As dawn broke over Carletonville, a town near Johannesburg, there were scenes of relief and despair. A woman put her arm around her sobbing daughter, who was apparently distraught at the lack of news about her husband.

Disgruntled family members stood outside the mine offices, complaining that they had not been given enough information about their loved ones.

"I am very traumatized, exhausted, not knowing what is going on," said Sam Ramohanoe, whose wife, Flora, 31, was among the trapped. "It is very unfair to us, not knowing what is going on with our beloved ones."

Deon Boqwana, regional chairman for the union, said officials were in contact with the men below ground by a telephone line in the mine.

Boqwana said the smaller cage being used to bring miners out can hold about 75 miners at a time. He said it normally takes three minutes to reach the surface but would be slower because rescuers were being careful.

Bailey, the union health chairman, said the miners were "very afraid," hungry and thirsty after being underground for hours.

"Some of these mineworkers started duty on Tuesday evening. It is now Wednesday night and they are still underground," he said.

A spokesman for the union, Lesiba Seshoka, said that the mine was not properly maintained.

"Our guys there tell us that they have raised concerns about the whole issue of maintenance of shafts with the mine (managers) but they have not been attended to," he said.

Company spokeswoman Amelia Soares said the mine had won a number of safety awards and had never witnessed any fatal accidents. She said the company was likely to suffer considerable loss in output during the closure, but was unable to give a precise estimate, saying that attention for now was concentrated on the rescue operation.

Senzeni Zokwana, the president of the National Mineworkers Union, said the accident should be a wake-up call for the industry.

"We are very much concerned. We believe that this should be a call to the industry that secondary exits underground be mandated," said Zokwana.

Motsepe said he had been in the mining business since the 1980s and could not remember an another incident where so many miners had been trapped below ground.

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