4 suspected ‘illegal miners’ found dead

Four bodies were found on the side of a Benoni road on Tuesday, wrapped in blankets and plastic.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo said:

He said police received an anonymous tip-off about the bodies.

An inquest docket has been opened for investigation and a post-mortem will be conducted to confirm the cause of death, Masondo added.

This is not the first time police have recovered bodies in that road.

In 2017, police were called out to Snake Road after six bodies were dumped next to a railway line, News24 previously reported.

At the time, police also suspected that the bodies belonged to illegal miners. Each person had been shot in the upper body.

The number of bodies increased to 14 in the days after the first discovery, according to IOL reports, after another eight bodies were found two days later.

Police suspected the murders were the result of clashes between rival gangs involved in illegal mining.