69 Die in Week of Violence at S. Africa Mine

A South African mining conglomerate began sending home thousands of black workers Monday after a week of clashes at one of its main gold mines here left at least 69 people dead and 177 injured.

The violence at the Anglo American Corp. mine was apparently sparked by a two-day nationwide strike last week that was opposed by migrant Sotho miners from neighboring Lesotho working at the President Steyn Mine on the outskirts of this gold mining center.

A spokesman for Anglo American said that a total of 69 miners had died, but police put the toll at 70 in eight days of clashes within two men’s hostels located at the entrance to the mine’s No. 2 and No. 4 shafts.

Over the past week, police searched the hostels and carted off four truckloads of weapons, ranging from hammers and homemade spears to knives and pistols used in the fighting, most of which took place at night.

Officials Monday described the situation as extremely tense. Reporters were taken under police escort to the men’s hostel at the No. 2 shaft but were quickly taken away again after Mine Manager Dick Solms said the situation was “very delicate at the moment.”

Hundreds of workers were standing silently around outside both hostels waiting to be paid before boarding buses taking them back to Lesotho or the Transkei, the nominally independent homeland of the Xhosa people in southeastern South Africa. Altogether, about 2,500 miners were leaving.