Hundreds of South African illegal miners, police continue standoff

JOHANNESBURG — Hundreds of illegal gold miners remained stuck underground Friday at an unused mine in South Africa that police have surrounded. South African authorities are refusing to allow supplies down to the miners, who they say are criminals.

Police initially thought some 4,000 illegal miners were underground at the closed Stilfontein mine, about 150 kilometers from Johannesburg.

They’ve revised the figure to several hundred but are still denying them food and water as part of “Operation Vala Umgodi” or “close the hole.”

Police say they are trying to force the miners — believed to have been underground for several weeks — to resurface. They say the miners are refusing to come up, fearing arrest, or in the case of undocumented migrants, deportation.

The government loses millions of dollars each year to illegal mining, according to the Minerals Council of South Africa.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out,” said Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni earlier this week. “They will come out.”

Anxious relatives have gathered at the mine, hoping to send supplies down to loved ones. On Thursday, a decomposing body was recovered from the shaft.

Some have accused the government of taking an inhumane position. David van Wyk, a researcher at the Bench Marks Foundation, a nonprofit that works on issues surrounding illegal miners, said what is happening at Stilfontein is a “problematic” humanitarian situation.

“The workers got to be there because South Africa is in a transition,” he said. “Large-scale industrial gold mining is no longer profitable, and many mines are shutting down and tens of thousands of workers are losing their jobs.”

There’s a term in South Africa for the men who risk their lives searching for gold deep underground: “zama zamas,” which means “take a chance” in the Zulu language.

Johannesburg, dubbed “egoli” or “city of gold” for the riches that lie beneath, was once a major gold mining hub. Many of the mines have closed, however, and the illegal artisanal miners have gone underground hoping to get what’s left.

Most are desperately poor, many from neighboring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique, and stay underground for weeks or even months at a time with no protective equipment in the huge maze of tunnels under the city.

Subterranean networks and an underground economy have developed, where food and cigarettes, and sometimes prostitutes, are brought down to the men, experts say. Drug use is rife, and turf wars between rival groups armed with AK-47s and other weapons often break out.

While they eke out a meager living, zama zamas have become associated with violent gangs and criminal syndicates that run things and are getting rich from the illicit industry.

The Bench Marks Foundation’s Van Wyk said his organization has recommended government regulate and legalize small-scale mining. He says there are some 6,000 abandoned mines in South Africa.

“It’s basically a free for all that has evolved and that has resulted in mine workers becoming super exploited,” Van Wyk said. "The police never arrest the mining syndicates that control them. Everyone is profiting from it except the poor guys who find themselves starved underground.”

Police say more than 1,000 zama zamas have resurfaced in North West province, where the Silfontein mine is located, since police started operations there in mid-October.

The police minister was visiting the site Friday.