JOHANNESBURG – Fourteen clandestine miners died and eight others were seriously injured following a rockfall at a disused mine near Rustenburg on Tuesday, exposing once again the deadly toll of South Africa’s relentless illegal mining crisis.
The disaster occurred approximately 100km northwest of Johannesburg, where the miners were working in abandoned shafts when the rock collapse struck. Provincial police spokeswoman Colonel Adele Myburgh confirmed the deaths, though authorities were still en route to the site and could not yet confirm the nationalities of those killed.
“Fourteen illegal miners dead at disused mine,” the police statement read, marking another grim chapter in South Africa’s ongoing battle with what locals call “zama zamas” – a Zulu phrase meaning “those who try”.
Weekly arrests fail to stem the tide
Despite authorities arresting scores of illegal miners each week, the crisis shows no signs of abating. Thousands of unregistered miners continue to operate across South Africa’s mineral-rich regions, scavenging abandoned mines for gold and other valuable minerals in conditions that grow more perilous by the day.
The problem has become a vicious cycle: arrests are made, operations are temporarily disrupted, but poverty and unemployment across southern Africa continue to drive desperate job-seekers into the hazardous depths of disused mining infrastructure.
Unreported deaths a hidden reality
Whilst this week’s incident made headlines, insiders suggest that fatalities amongst illegal miners occur far more frequently than official records reflect. Many deaths in abandoned shafts go unreported, with bodies sometimes never recovered from the crumbling tunnels deep underground.
The dangerous conditions include unstable rock formations, flooding, lack of ventilation, and the constant risk of shaft collapses in mines that were abandoned precisely because they became too hazardous or unprofitable to operate legally.
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Poverty, unemployment and organised crime
The illegal miners come from across southern Africa, driven by dire economic circumstances in their home countries. However, what begins as desperate individuals seeking survival has increasingly become entangled with organised crime networks.
The sector has been linked to assassinations, extortion rackets, and other illegal activities, with criminal syndicates often controlling access to the mines and taking cuts from whatever minerals the zama zamas manage to extract. This criminal element complicates law enforcement efforts, as authorities must navigate not just the mining operations themselves but the dangerous organised crime networks that profit from them.
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