Illegal mining blamed as Johannesburg gas leak kills 17

The death toll from an overnight gas cylinder leak in a South African shantytown rose to 17 on Thursday, as one local official blamed the accident on an illegal mining operation that went wrong.

Gauteng province premier Panyaza Lesufi said investigations were under way to determine how the leak happened and what type of gas was involved.

On Thursday morning he visited the site of the disaster near Boksburg, east of Johannesburg. In December, a gas tanker explosion in the same township killed dozens and destroyed houses and vehicles.

Bodies of the victims of Wednesday’s leak were scattered over the area, Mr Lesufi said, with the youngest a one-year-old child. Two other children, aged six and 15, were reported to be among the dead. “The scene was heartbreaking,” he said, adding that one person had died in a hospital overnight, raising the death toll to 17, while four others were in critical condition.

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A spokesman for the Disaster and Emergency Management Services in Ekurhuleni municipality, where the disaster occurred, linked it to illegal mining. “Whether the illegal miners are among the deceased, that is not yet known,” William Ntladi told broadcaster SABC, which gave no further details.

A clip shared by Mr Lesufi on social media showed several cylinders mounted on top of wooden tables in a shack covered with iron sheets. He shared an image of another cylinder, citing it as the source of the leak without providing evidence.

Forensic workers in hazmat suits combed the area on Wednesday night together. Those teams continued their investigations on Thursday and were seeking to secure the area, Mr Lesufi said.

“They’ve tried to ensure that those cylinders that are still there cannot either explode or they cannot harm people further,” he said. “When I came here last night the smell was still up in the sky.”

Johannesburg’s vast network of disused gold mines are used by zama zamas – “those who try their luck”, in isiZulu – hoping to find gold, which is then processed above ground. Just under a third of all of the gold ever mined has come from Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand mines. There are as many as 30,000 illegal miners working in South Africa, according to a report by the South African Human Rights Commussion, and hundreds have died in mine shaft collapses, gas leaks and battles between illegal miners and workers employed by mine owners. – Reuters/Guardian