The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.

The miner, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said he surfaced on Christmas Day after entering the shaft in July, spending months underground where he experienced extreme hunger and saw many of his fellow diggers dying from starvation and illnesses.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing calls to order a national inquiry into a police operation that was meant to combat illegal mining but ended up leaving 87 miners to die underground as