South Africa's elite police unit is vowing to hunt down illegal mining kingpins following the discovery of two bodies at an abandoned gold shaft where dozens of people had been trapped.
A total of 25 illegal miners have emerged from the disused pit east of Johannesburg, risking arrest, a large fine and a possible jail sentence.
"One body was brought to the surface by the miners, we have been unable to get to the second body," said Roggers Mamaila, part of the emergency team trying to coax remaining miners out of the shaft.
It was not immediately clear how or when the victims had died.
Shadrack Sibiya from the police's Hawks unit said 22 miners were due to appear in court on Tuesday and had given police information which could crack the gangs they work for.
"We are convinced that information obtained will lead us to the kingpins," he said.
"We will be going after the masterminds. We cannot allow this to continue.
Police said the arrested men were all aged between 20 and 40, were all foreign nationals, and most did not have immigration papers.
Emergency responders were still looking for around five more men believed to be hiding underground.
"That figure is based on the tip-off we received on Sunday... that there were 30 people underground," said Mamaila.
"There is still movement underground, so we expect the last group of people to surrender themselves."
Much of the area around Johannesburg is pockmarked with old shafts, a testament to the city's century old history of gold mining.
While many are no longer commercially viable, they still contain enough deposits to attract scores of the city's unemployed.
