Three “illegal” miners, believed to be migrants from Zimbabwe, died after inhaling toxic gasses while working in a disused mine shaft at Langlaagte Gold Mine in South Africa, and their bodies were retrieved and brought to the surface. More than 10 "illegal" miners were believed to have been trapped in the mineshaft, and some of them surfaced alive. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has called for the decriminalisation and regulation of the independent small scale mining as part of the solution to dealing with "illegal" miners.

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