To date, 87 bodies of illegal miners have been retrieved, and over 1 900 illegal miners have been brought to the surface.

Vavi says if the government had acted faster, they could have saved more lives.

"We went to Stilfontein at the time when most illegal mineworkers were now being forced to leave because they had been starved of food and water as a result of that operation. More than 80 people have died. We think that if the government had moved with the necessary speed in the shaft where people were unable to come out on their own, it would have saved all of the people who had died."

--SABC/ChannelAfrica--