This comes after officers intervened to stop people from providing the miners with essential supplies.

National Police Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says Vala Umgodi task teams in the province stopped community members from bringing them food and water.

Mathe says the operations are ongoing and that police continue to monitor old abandoned mine shafts as more and more miners resurface.

“These 225 illegal miners are part of others believed to be hundreds if not a thousand illegal miners who are stuck underground with no food, water and necessities because the Vala Umgodi teams led by the SAPS and SANDF are blocking routes used to deliver food and necessities to these illegal miners. Just earlier this week, SAPS and members of the SANDF blocked communities in and around these abandoned mining shifts in Orkney from delivering food parcels, water and necessities,” she said.

--SABC--