‘Kill the people’: How men were left to starve in a South African gold mine

Below ground, men were gathering at the hollowed-out area at a depth of about 1,300 metres in Shaft 11.

Patrick had made his way there in November, having heard there might be food, as the men around him in Shaft 10 tried to survive on salt and toothpaste mixed with water collected at the bottom of the rock face. On his way to the passage, he had seen a body hanging from...