No respite for illegal miners

THOSE RESURFACING ENDURE DOUBLE VICTIMISATION FROM GANGS AND POLICE

- Kimon de Greef

Yesterday, 14 zama zamas resurfaced from underground at a disused mine in Stilfontein, where an operation against illegal mining is ongoing. Police guarding the shaft's entrance arrested them. One gave his age as 14.

The miners were all Mozambican, their clothes torn and muddy and some were barefoot. The shaft is deeper than 1.5km and no longer ventilated, emitting hot vapour that billows upwards like steam. The men were soaking wet and had cuts on their hands.

Some of the men said they had been hired as casual labourers, unaware the job would lead them into some of the world's deepest and most dangerous mines.

One was at a roadside area in Middelburg where unemployed people wait for odd jobs when some men pulled up in a minibus and offered him work in Joburg.

He hurriedly went home and said goodbye to his wife, with whom he has four children.

That was his last contact with his family for three months.

Other men were similarly recruited in the townships of Diepsloot and Alexandra. The recruiters were said to be Basotho men.

Instead of stopping in Joburg, the minibus headed out of the city. "We asked questions, but they threatened us with guns," the man from Middelburg said.

They arrived in Stilfontein and were ordered to go underground.

Stilfontein has become an epicentre of the illicit gold industry. The town lies outside Klerksdorp on the N12 highway, dwarfed by hills of dumped rock and tailings from industrial mines that began operating in the 1950s.

Billion-rand industry

Most of the mines were closed due to declining profits, though vast quantities of gold remain in the ground.

Powerful gangs have taken over the abandoned shafts.