Owen Jaison, one of the 14 artisanal miners who were trapped underground for three days after a mine shaft to a tunnel they were working in collapsed at Tsapauta in Penhalonga, Manicaland Province said that their escape from the belly of the Earth was a miracle.
Jaison (24), is from the Insiza District in Matabeleland South province, more than 460km away from Redwing Mine.
Narrating the artisanal miners’ harrowing experience to NewsDay, Jaison their escape “proved” to him that miracles exist. He said:
It can only be God. It was a miracle and I now believe that miracles do happen.
The horror started in the early hours of 04 January 2024 when Jaison and his colleagues were mining underground. He said:
We heard a noise and realised that the shaft pillars were falling. We sensed that we were in danger.
The ground was wet and the walls of the shaft continued caving in towards us. The opening of the shaft was closed by sand and we had nowhere to go.
So we went deeper into the mine looking for escape tunnels, but to no avail. There was no time to sleep as we were determined to survive.
The miners fed on underground tree roots while being haunted by the fear of underground explosions, gas poisoning, suffocation and mine walls caving in. Said Jaison:
There was no time to sleep as we looked for tunnels to escape. We ate the roots of trees and drank dirty water. Some wept uncontrollably, while others were mired in confusion.
We told ourselves that we had to be psychologically strong. We prayed to God to give us more strength. We developed hope and the quest for survival kept us going.
However, after three days most of the miners were exhausted and weak. He said:
We prayed harder and told ourselves that we had to survive, otherwise we were going to die. The ground continued to cave in. So we had to go to the other side where the ground was still intact.
As we crept, pushing against the narrow walls, we noticed a crack and we went to investigate. We realised that the crack had been caused by the collapsed shaft.
We took rods and sticks and started digging into the crack. We dug up and crawled up the crack.
There were four of us who first went up the crack. We held each other’s hands as we dug and crawled up. It was not easy, but we had to survive.
Jaisone chronicled how they spent hours digging into the crack, determined to reach the surface. He said:
It was so painful to dig up the crack. Our bodies became weak because of hunger and severe thirst. Some of the younger miners were gripped with the panic of death.
When we realised that we were almost reaching the surface, we shouted to our colleagues to follow us.
The four of us then managed to break out and crawled out to the surface through the crack.
We then saw some people who were moving around searching for us and we shouted for help.
That is when we told them that the other guys were behind us. Fortunately, nine miners came out the way we did.
There were two left who could not make it due to fatigue, that is when the rescue team was notified and they brought a rope to pull them out. That is how we survived.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Zhemu Soda has since suspended mining activities at Redwing Mine.
However, illegal mining facilitated by political elites and politically connected groups is said to be still taking place at the mine.
Meanwhile, Jaison has decided to take a break from artisanal mining, saying “I cannot gamble my life again”.
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