Police have blamed a gas leak in illegal gold mining processing plants hidden among the shacks of the Angelo settlement in Boksburg for the deaths of 17 people this week.
Three children, including a one-year-old, were among the victims of the leak.
Eyewitnesses reported a strong smell of gas and rotten eggs and claimed seeing people walking outside suddenly falling to the ground, gasping for air, before dying.
Angelo resident Mandla Marunda said: ‘I’m traumatised, even now, because we were trying to revive some of the people that were dying on the street. Some, they were dying just like that. We tried to revive them, but then we failed.’
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi promised that the government would work with the municipality to crack down on illegal mining.
[Image: Ilse Driessen on Unsplash]