Fourteen illegal miners died when a rockfall struck an abandoned mine shaft near Rustenburg on Monday evening, police confirmed on Tuesday.

Most of the victims were from Lesotho, working as “zama zamas” – unregistered miners who scavenge abandoned mines for gold and other minerals under dangerous conditions.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Adele Myburgh said eight other miners were hospitalised following the incident at Nkaneng, located nearly 100km northwest of Johannesburg in North West province. An unknown number of miners may still be trapped underground.

“Fourteen illegal miners, mostly Basothos, died during a rockfall,” Myburgh said in a statement. “Police are on the scene, and the scene is still active.”

Thousands work in perilous conditions

Thousands of unregistered miners from across the region work in South Africa’s abandoned mine shafts, driven by poverty and unemployment. The sector has links to organised crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities.

“It’s not safe where they work in any way. They go into discarded mine shafts – it’s so dilapidated, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no safety measures in place,” Myburgh told AFP.

The area where the rockfall occurred is owned by Sibanye, a global mining and metals processing group.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the deployment of the army in February to help police combat illegal mining, which has caused major infrastructure damage in some areas.

SAFTU warns of ‘death traps’

The South African Federation of Trade Unions said it had repeatedly warned that the country had allowed thousands of abandoned mines to become death traps, environmental hazards and breeding grounds for organised criminal syndicates.

Around 6 000 derelict and ownerless mines and abandoned mining sites exist in South Africa, the union said in a statement.

“The Nkaneng tragedy once again demonstrates the terrible human price of failing to confront the crisis comprehensively,” it said.

Previous deadly incidents

Nearly two years ago, around 90 clandestine miners lost their lives when police blocked a disused gold mine near Stilfontein, west of Johannesburg, for weeks from August 2024.

Nearly 2 000 miners resurfaced during the weeks-long operation, many of them illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries including Lesotho and Mozambique.

On 31 July, police arrested 24 undocumented foreign nationals in the Stilfontein area during an operation against suspected illegal gold mining.

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