MARIKANA - Marikana residents woke up on Tuesday to the news that 14 illegal miners had died.
Preliminary information indicates an opencast shaft caved in after heavy rainfall in the area.
Eight Basotho nationals who survived were rushed to hospital, with three later released into police custody.
But as the search and rescue operation is called off over safety concerns, questions are now being raised about how illegal miners were able to access the mine in the first place.
They reportedly breached an authorised opencast shaft operated by Sustenza Trading.
The company holds a valid permit from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
Police say the illegal operation was not reported to them.
That has raised questions about security at the site, and whether anyone knew the illegal miners were operating there before the suspected collapse.
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Sustenza Trading will also form part of the investigation.
"That place was breached from the back without the security officers from the front knowing," said North West police commissioner Arthur Adams.
"Whether they knew or not, we will be in a process to establish if they were aware before this incident of the illegal mining activities, and then we will act.
"We will not be caught up in the hype and now just jump into conclusions. We need to follow a process," he said.
Adams says the investigation will also look beyond those found at the mine, to the wider network behind illegal mining.
For local authorities, the tragedy also highlights what they say is a broader failure to secure and rehabilitate abandoned or inactive mine sites.
The victims are yet to be identified.
Three arrested suspects are expected to appear in the Rustenburg magistrate's court on Thursday.
- eNCA's Bafedile Moerane reports.