SA mine workers held against their will - union leader

More than 2,000 South African workers remain underground for a third day of sit-in protest at a mine in Rustenburg, about 100km (60 miles) north-west of Johannesburg.

A local union official has, however, told the BBC's Newsday programme that some of the workers underground are being held hostage by their colleagues.

"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," Geoffrey Moatshe, the regional secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers told Newsday on Wednesday.

The protest began on Monday morning and has been labelled illegal as it was not sanctioned by the National Union of Mineworkers

It is reportedly fuelled by disputes over a profit-sharing scheme and the release of workers' pension funds .

Implats, the company that recently acquired the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine, where the protest is under way, says that 167 workers had safely re-emerged while 2,038 others remained underground by Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on BBC News.