MORE than 2,000 South African workers staging a sit-in protest at a mine in Rustenburg remained underground for a third day today.

The occupation at Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine, which began on Monday morning, has been labelled illegal as it is not sanctioned by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

NUM officials have said that some of the workers are being held hostage by their colleagues.

Regional secretary Geoffrey Moatshe said: “For some time, we thought this is just a sit-in, but as developments came out, those that are able to leave underground tell us that workers underground are held against their will, so it is actually a hostage situation.”

The protest is reportedly related to disputes over a profit-sharing scheme and the release of pension funds.

Implats, one of the world’s biggest platinum mining firms, which recently bought the site, said that 167 workers had re-emerged while 2,038 remained underground on Tuesday.

Two similar underground protests took place at a gold mine in the city of Springs earlier this month and in October.

They too lasted for days amid allegations of hostage-taking.