Paatal Lok 2.0: People eat body parts of their own friends to stay alive, what were they searching for in….

To find the gold, smugglers in South Africa built an underground city nearly a kilometer under the surface.

South Africa Gold Mine: In the 16th century, when Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico, he was astonished by the Aztec people’s gold. Unlike Europeans, the Aztecs did not consider the yellow metal highly valuable and were confused and shocked by the Spaniards’ obsession with something that could neither be eaten nor worn. To justify his greed for gold, Cortés fabricated a false story, claiming that his men suffered from a deadly heart disease that could only be cured by the precious metal.

Centuries later, despite ending the “gold fever,” it has surged significantly—in South Africa, it has even led to cannibalism.

The Dark Reality of Illegal Gold Mining

To find the yellow metal, smugglers in South Africa built an underground city nearly a kilometer under the surface. To arrest these smugglers, authorities cut off food and water supplies.

As per a report by The Telegraph, two survivors revealed that miners resorted to cannibalism, eating the body parts of their fellow workers. A survivor said, “To stay alive, people ate their companions’ legs, arms, and ribs. We had no other choice.” While he denied consuming human flesh himself, he admitted to eating cockroaches to survive.

The Struggle Between Police and Illegal Miners

Last week, rescue teams retrieved 78 bodies and rescued 246 people from one of the deepest mines in South Africa. It is noteworthy that, the conflict between cops and illegal miners has been ongoing for decades. The miners infiltrated abandoned gold mines, extracting the remains – mostly under the control of organised crime syndicates.

In August, authorities cut off food and water supplies inside the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine in the Northwest province. Officials justified this move, stating that the mine was too dangerous due to armed criminals inside.

However, several condemned the strategy as inhumane.

Allegations of Mass Murder

Locals and trade unions accused the police of mass murder. They argued that several miners were either trapped or too weak to escape. A rescue operation was launched after a court’s order, revealing a horrifying number of corpses and severely malnourished survivors.

Public outrage intensified when authorities admitted that illegal mining kingpin James Nio Tshoeli had escaped police custody with the help of corrupt officials.

So far, more than 1,300 miners have been brought to the surface.

South Africa’s Abandoned Mines and Economic Crisis

South Africa’s mining minister, Gwede Mantashe, responded to the tragedy, stating, “If people enter a dangerous place and starve to death after three months, how is that the government’s responsibility?”

The nation’s terrain is abundant in gold, platinum, manganese, and various other minerals. Nevertheless, the closure of more than 6,000 exhausted mines has resulted in significant unemployment, leading many individuals to engage in illegal mining activities.