STIERFONTAIN, South Africa - They look like the walking dead. The dusty man, his skin and hair covered in mud, only a skeleton remains. Some people have difficulty walking and collapse. They blinked like moles in the harsh South African sun. Some look painfully young.

The rescue operation for hundreds of illegal miners at an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, a mining town about 100 miles southwest of Johannesburg, began on Monday and ended on Thursday, with rescuers saying no one was left in the mine.

Throughout the rescue process, 246 illegal gold miners Brought alive to the surface. Seventy-eight others were brought up dead.

These illegal miners are called "zama zamas" or "those adventurers" in Zulu. underground for several monthsTheir condition deteriorated rapidly after police cut off their food and water supplies in November as part of Operation Vala Umgodi, or "Plug the Loops."

Authorities say this is done to resurface them, or as one minister put it, "to get them out" so they can be arrested. Police initially said they were in a standoff with illegal miners who refused to come forward for fear of arrest.

But over time, community activists and unions say the men have become too emaciated and weak to make the dangerous two-kilometre climb back to the surface even if they wanted to.

Earlier this month, a union of mine workers shared footage taken underground showing how serious the situation was. In one video, an unidentified miner extends his ribs to ask for help. Another video showed how the miners lived among dozens of corpses.

In testimonies submitted to the court, several zama zamas who have resurfaced since the police operation began shared harrowing details of life underground, with people eating cockroaches or surviving on toothpaste.

Mzukisi Jam, a local community leader who has worked in the abandoned mine for more than two months organizing supplies to illegal miners, is merciless in his criticism of the government.

Standing on the dirt road leading to the rescue site in Stiehlfontein, where ambulances waited for survivors and people in hazmat suits handled bodies, Jam said "a carnage" had occurred.

"We're not going to celebrate, give credit and say thank you to the government," he told NPR. "We start talking to the government before there's even a single death... but they have to wait until people start dying."

Specialized machinery was used to lower cages and bring people and bodies up near the huge holes leading into the abandoned mines. It can carry about seven people at a time, and each rotation takes about an hour. No police or rescue workers were willing to go down because the risk was too high, so it was left to ordinary volunteers from the local township to undertake the devastating task.

Zinzi Tom's 26-year-old brother has been underground since July and has been calling on the government for help for months. She eventually launched a final court case and ordered a rescue operation this month after several groups went to court to try to force the government to make concessions.

"We knocked on a lot of doors and begged the government to help us," she said. "Our government only knows you are human when it needs votes."

Her brother Ayanda is a father of two. She said he had been unsuccessful in finding work and, in desperation, was eking out a dangerous existence deep underground.

She showed up outside rescue scenes day after day, singing protest songs with a small group of family and community members and holding signs that read "#Black Lives Matter" and "Every Life Counts. Stop Xenophobia."

Many people here believe that the majority of the Stephane Zamazama are Mozambicans and Zimbabweans, a fact that largely influences the government's attitude. In fact, many ordinary South Africans are indifferent to their plight, with countless comments on social media platforms saying they should be left to die.

Anti-immigration sentiment is high in South Africa, and immigrants are often used as scapegoats for other problems. South Africa's youth unemployment rate exceeds 45%.

Steelefontein epitomizes the failure of the post-apartheid government to improve the lives of many poor black people. Cows graze in green fields, but the area is dotted with large mining operations, many of which are now closed.

South Africa was once the world's largest gold producer, but large-scale industrial mining became unprofitable and many mines closed, leaving tens of thousands of workers unemployed.

Among them was Samuel Sehebeng, 47, who spent his morning drinking in a tavern in the nearby dusty town of Cooma.

"We're a mining town and our economy relies on the mining industry, but most of the mines have closed recently, so the local economy has taken a big hit," he told NPR. "I used to work in the mining industry and then I lost my job and there was a general layoff. That was in 2017 and I've been out of work ever since."

Sehben said he felt for those who were living a "zama-zama" life. There are thousands of abandoned mines where they can hunt for a fraction of the gold that makes the country rich.

The government has long vowed to crack down on illegal mining, which they say will cost the South African economy R60 billion ($3 billion) by 2024. They say the Zama Zama are sometimes violent criminals who terrorize communities.

But illegal mining experts say there are different hierarchies in the world of Zama Zama. Heavily armed gang leaders go about their operations to brutalize and intimidate their subordinates and get rich, while ordinary people risk their lives and go underground for a pittance.

'The darkest moment in our history'

On January 10, more than two months after news of the crisis in Steelfontein broke, the High Court in Pretoria ordered the government to launch a rescue operation.

"We do not want to see the darkest moment in our history," the judge said in his ruling.

But by the time the rescue operation ended on Thursday, 78 people had died, and Steelefontein may indeed go down as one of the darkest episodes of South Africa's post-apartheid era.

While one party in South Africa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance, belatedly condemned what happened in Steelfontein, members of the African National Congress, the largest party in the government, stood their ground.

"You attack South Africa's economy, you declare war on the economy, I cannot be your partner," Mines and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told a news conference at the mine on Tuesday.

After the press conference, Mantashe and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu took to the road to address angry families and protesters. But they were shouted down and turned away, quickly climbing into a waiting black BMW and driven away.

Salvage the body

The rescued illegal miners will now face prosecution, and police said on Thursday they had also arrested some Zama Zama leaders.

The rescued illegal miners will now face prosecution, and police said on Thursday they had also arrested some Zama Zama leaders.

Meanwhile, the government faces a reckoning, with some civil society groups calling for a commission of inquiry and even murder charges against the government. As far as the police are concerned, Operation Wala Ugodi will continue.

Now that the rescue mission has been completed, the arduous task of identifying nearly 80 bodies has begun.

"The only thing we are grateful for is that at least these families will have the opportunity to bury their loved ones," said community leader Mzukisi Jam.

Whether they can do that remains to be seen.

NPR spoke with a forensic pathology officer at a hospital morgue in the nearby town of Klerksdorp. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the facility was full and about 30 Zama Zama bodies were awaiting forensic investigation.

He added that many items were in a severe state of decay due to the high temperatures underground. Some write their names and family phone numbers on their chests, having a pessimistic premonition of what is to come.