I Don't Really Understand This Story

At first it sounds like these two guys hazarded some kind of superhuman caving to rescue these miners. Then it turns out--as I understand it--that the miners simply refused to leave in order to avoid arrest...

Am I getting this straight?

So...South African jails are so bad that they elected to remain in a mine, without light "for weeks or months", eating "cockroaches and human flesh"...in order to avoid arrest?

Seems to me this just doesn't add up...