The New Age reports that the seven suspected illegal miners (zama zamas) whose bodies were found in Benoni on Sunday have all been identified as Lesotho nationals.  

Their families are arranging for their funerals.  The police confirmed this on Wednesday but said no arrests had yet been made in connection with the deaths.  They were, however, following leads which could lead to the arrests of people who might also be involved in illegal mining.  The seven decomposing bodies were found scattered in the veld in Benoni in an area where violence regularly breaks out between rival illegal miners fighting over access to disused mine shafts.  It is suspected that the men were killed elsewhere and their bodies later dumped in the veld.  The families believe that the killings were the result of violence between two groups of illegal miners, one of them being Basotho, on Friday at one of the mine shafts that has been a scene of conflict.  "The two groups fought at the mine shaft and started shooting at each other.  One illegal miner who survived told us that we might find our cousin among the dead," a family member who had arrived to identify one of the bodies said.  The war between illegal miners has been ongoing in the Benoni and Boksburg areas for some time.

• Read this report by Dikeledi Molobela in full at HTSyndication (The New Age)

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