Police say 350-400 people have stayed in Stilfontein mine to avoid arrest after minister vowed to ‘smoke them out’

The police’s murderous tactics, dubbed “surrender or starve”, have caused outrage in South Africa where unemployment has soared to 42 percent and economic desperation is widespread in the world’s most unequal society.

A South African court ordered police to end a standoff with illegal miners to allow emergency workers to gain access to a mine shaft where several hundred are believed to remain after the government cut off vital supplies.

A court says emergency workers must be allowed to enter a mine where hundreds are thought to be without food and water.

The South African police intensified efforts to force hundreds of illegal gold miners holed up in underground shafts to the surface so they can be arrested.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday lives should not be put at risk in a standoff between police and hundreds of illegal miners stuck underground in a disused mine shaft and the miners should be recovered safely.

The government says it will not help' criminals.' For nearly two weeks, South African police have closely monitored an abandoned gold mine at Stilfontein, about 150 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg.