WATCH: Body of illegal miner retrieved from abandoned Stilfontein gold mine

JOHANNESBURG - The body of an illegal miner has been retrieved from an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein on Tuesday as harsh conditions take their toll on some zama zamas.

The body was recovered from Shaft 11 at the old Buffelsfontein mine where an operation is currently under way to bring hundreds of illegal miners back to the surface.

This is the second decomposed body to be retrieved in less than a month.

Community members helped to retrieve the body of an unidentified man from the abandoned mine.

It took several hours to pull the carefully wrapped body bag up after illegal miners notified the community rescue team of several bodies underground.

What was meant to be efforts to send down food parcels to the already hungry and dehydrated zama zamas turned into a grim operation.

A note was also attached to the body bag. According to the note – the illegal miner died of hunger.

Pleading for quicker rescue efforts – the illegal miners claim bodies are piling up underground.

North West Emergency Management Services teams are still on site.