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

South African authorities are assessing whether it is safe to rescue potentially thousands of illegal miners who may be trapped underground, after police stopped food, water and medicine being delivered to them about two weeks ago to try to force the miners to the surface.

A police spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe, insisted to reporters on Tuesday that the miners were not trapped in the abandoned goldmine in Stilfontein, a town about 100 miles south-west of Johannesburg, but rather staying underground to avoid being arrested.

Police hunting for suspects in attacks that took place in same neighbourhood in Eastern Cape province

Seventeen people, including 15 women, have been killed in two mass shootings that took place close to each other in a rural town in South Africa, police said.

A search was under way for the suspects, the national police spokesperson, Brig Athlenda Mathe, said in a statement on Saturday. One other person was in critical condition in the hospital, she added.

Farm owner and two employees allegedly shot dead Locadia Ndlovu and Maria Makgatho after they trespassed

A South African farmer and two of his employees have been accused of killing two women and feeding their bodies to his pigs.

The killings of Maria Makgatho and Locadia Ndlovu, also named in local media as Kudzai Ndlovu, allegedly took place when the two women trespassed on a farm in the northern province of Limpopo in August. They were scavenging for expired dairy products, which local media reported had been left there to feed the pigs.

National government is investigating Chidimma Adetshina, who had faced a public furore over her citizenship

A South African beauty pageant contestant has withdrawn from the competition after the government accused her mother of fraud and identity theft, following questions over the contestant’s citizenship.

Chidimma Adetshina, 23, said she had made the “difficult decision” to protect herself and her family before the Miss South Africa final on Saturday, and a day after the home affairs ministry said her mother may have stolen a South African woman’s identity.

South African government joins row over Chidimma Adetshina’s heritage with suggestion mother may have committed identity theft

South Africa’s national beauty pageant has been thrown into turmoil, after the government accused the mother of a contestant who suffered a torrent of online abuse over her Nigerian heritage of fraud and identity theft.

Chidimma Adetshina, 23, has been the subject of vicious, xenophobic attacks on social media since she was announced as a finalist in Miss South Africa in July, with many, including cabinet ministers, questioning her credentials.