The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.

The South African government faced growing criticism on Wednesday over the deaths of at least 60 unlicenced miners who were trapped deep underground for months by a police siege aimed at forcing them out so they could be arrested.

Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine