South Africa’s unlawful mining business: Gang-controlled ‘cities’ develop underground

Together with about 600 different males, Ndumiso lives and works in a small gang-controlled “city” – full with markets and a purple mild district – that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.

Ndumiso instructed the BBC that after being laid off by a giant mining agency, he determined to hitch the gang in its underground world to turn into what is named a “zama zama”, an unlawful miner.

He digs for the valuable steel and surfaces each three months or so to promote it on the black marketplace for an enormous revenue, incomes greater than he ever did earlier than – although the dangers now are far larger.

“The underground life is ruthless. Many don’t make it out alive,” mentioned the 52-year-old, who spoke to the BBC given that his actual identify was not used as he feared reprisals.

“In a single stage of the shaft there are our bodies and skeletons. We name that the zama-zama graveyard,” he mentioned.

However for many who survive, like Ndumiso, the job may be profitable.

Whereas he sleeps on sandbags after back-breaking days underground, his household lives in a home he has purchased in a township of the primary metropolis, Johannesburg.

He made money funds of 130,000 rand (about $7,000; £5,600) for the one-bedroom home, which he has now prolonged to incorporate one other three bedrooms, he mentioned.

An unlawful miner for about eight years, Ndumiso has managed to ship his three youngsters to fee-paying colleges – certainly one of whom is now in college.

“I’ve to offer for my spouse and kids and that is the one method I do know,” he mentioned, including that he most popular to toil underground fairly than including to the excessive crime fee by turning into a car-hijacker or robber, after spending a few years looking for authorized work.

His present job is at a mine within the small city of Stilfontein, round 90 miles (145km) south-west of Johannesburg, which is on the centre of worldwide consideration after a authorities minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, promised to “smoke out” the a whole lot of miners who have been underground there, with the safety forces stopping meals and water from being despatched down.

“Criminals are to not be helped. Criminals are to be persecuted,” Ntshavheni mentioned.

A marketing campaign group, The Society for the Safety of Our Structure, has launched a court docket case to demand entry to the mineshaft, which police say is about 2km (1.2 miles) deep.

The court docket has given an interim ruling, stating that meals and different necessities might be delivered to the miners.

Ndumiso works at a unique shaft on the mine, and surfaced final month, earlier than the present stand-off.

He’s now ready to see how the state of affairs unfolds, earlier than deciding whether or not to return.

The stand-off follows a authorities resolution to crack down on an business that has spiralled uncontrolled, with mafia-like gangs operating it.

“The nation has been grappling with the scourge of unlawful mining for a few years, and mining communities bore the brunt of peripheral legal actions comparable to rape, robbing and harm to public infrastructure, amongst others,” mentioned Mikateko Mahlaule, chairman of the parliamentary committee on mineral assets.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned the mine was a “crime scene”, however police have been negotiating with the miners to finish the stand-off, fairly than taking place to arrest them.

“Regulation-enforcement authorities have info that among the miners could also be closely armed. It’s well-established that unlawful miners are recruited by legal gangs and kind a part of wider organised crime syndicates,” he added.

Ndumiso was amongst a whole lot of hundreds of employees – each locals and nationals of neighbouring states like Lesotho – who’ve been retrenched as South Africa’s mining business has gone into decline over the past three a long time. Many of those have gone on to turn into “zama zamas” on the deserted mines.

South Africa-based Benchmark Basis researcher David van Wyk, who has studied the business, mentioned there have been about 6,000 deserted mines within the nation.

“Whereas they don’t seem to be worthwhile for large-scale industrial mining, they’re worthwhile for small-scaling mining,” he instructed the BBC Deal with Africa podcast.

Ndumiso mentioned he used to work as a drill operator, incomes lower than $220 (£175) a month, for a gold-mining firm till he was laid off in 1996.

After struggling for the following 20 years to discover a full-time job due to South Africa’s crushingly excessive unemployment fee, he mentioned he determined to turn into an unlawful miner.

There are tens of hundreds of unlawful miners in South Africa, with Mr Van Wyk saying they quantity about 36,000 alone in Gauteng province – the nation’s financial heartland, the place gold was first found within the nineteenth Century.

“Zama zamas will usually spend months underground with out surfacing and rely closely on outdoors help for meals and different requirements. It’s arduous and harmful work,” mentioned a report by marketing campaign group International Initiative In opposition to Transnational Organised Crime.

“Some carry pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons to guard themselves from rival gangs of miners,” it added.

Ndumiso instructed the BBC that he did personal a pistol, however he additionally paid his gang a month-to-month “safety charge” of about $8.

Its closely armed guards fend off threats, particularly from Lesotho gangs reputed to have extra deadly firepower, he mentioned.

Beneath the 24-hour safety of the gang, Ndumiso mentioned he used dynamite for rock-blasting and rudimentary instruments comparable to a decide axe, spade and chisel to seek out gold.

Most of what he finds he provides to the gang chief, who pays him a minimal of $1,100 each two weeks. He mentioned he was in a position to preserve some gold, which he sells on the black market to high up his revenue.

He was among the many lucky miners to have such an association, he mentioned – explaining that others have been kidnapped and brought to the shaft to work like slave labourers, receiving no cost or gold.

Ndumiso mentioned he usually stayed underground for about three months at a time, after which got here up for 2 to 4 weeks to spend time along with his household and promote his gold, earlier than going again into the deep pits.

“I stay up for sleeping on my mattress and consuming home-cooked meals. Inhaling contemporary air is an amazingly highly effective feeling.”

Ndumiso doesn’t come out extra usually in case he loses his digging spot, however after three months it will get an excessive amount of to stay underground.

He recalled that when when he reached the floor: “I used to be so blinded by the daylight that I believed I had gone blind.”

His pores and skin had additionally turn into so pale that his spouse took him for a medical check-up: “I used to be trustworthy with the physician about the place I lived. He didn’t say something, and simply handled me. He gave me nutritional vitamins.”

Above floor Ndumiso doesn’t simply calm down. He additionally works with different unlawful miners as ore-bearing rocks introduced up from beneath are blasted and crushed into tremendous powder.

That is then “washed” by his group at a makeshift plant to separate the gold utilizing harmful chemical compounds like mercury and sodium cyanide.

Ndumiso mentioned he then sells his share of the gold – one gram for $55, lower than the official value of about $77.

He mentioned he has a ready-made purchaser, whom he contacts through WhatsApp.

“The primary time I met him I didn’t belief him so I instructed him to satisfy me within the automotive park of a police station. I knew I might be protected there.

“Now we meet in any automotive park. We have now a scale. We weigh the gold on the spot. I then hand it to over to him, and he pays me in money,” he mentioned, mentioning that he walks away with between $3,800 and $5,500.

He will get this quantity each three months, which means his common annual revenue is between $15,500 and $22,000 – way over the $2,700 he earned as a legally employed miner.

Ndumiso mentioned the gang leaders earned way more, however he didn’t know the way a lot.

As for the customer of his gold, Ndumiso mentioned he didn’t know something about him, besides that he was a white man in an unlawful business that entails individuals of various races and lessons.

This makes it troublesome to clamp down on the legal networks, with Mr Van Wyk saying the federal government was focusing on miners – however not the “kingpins residing within the leafy suburbs of Johannesburg and Cape City”.

Mr Ramaphosa mentioned that unlawful mining was costing “our economic system billions of rands in misplaced export revenue, royalties and taxes”, and the federal government would proceed to work with mining companies “to make sure they take duty for rehabilitating or closing mines which can be not operational”.

Mr Van Wyk instructed the BBC Deal with Africa podcast that the federal government would worsen South Africa’s financial disaster if it clamped down on the “zama zamas”.

“There must be a coverage to decriminalise their operations, to raised organise them and to control them,” he added.

When Ndumiso goes again underground to work, he takes with him cartons of canned meals to keep away from paying the exorbitant costs on the “markets” that exist there.

Other than meals, primary objects – like cigarettes, torches, batteries – and mining instruments have been bought there, he mentioned.

This implies {that a} group – or a small city – had developed underground through the years, with Ndumiso saying there was even a purple mild district, with intercourse employees introduced underground by the gangs.

Ndumiso mentioned the mine the place he labored was made up of a number of ranges, and a labyrinth of tunnels that related to one another.

“They’re like highways, with indicators painted to offer instructions to totally different locations and ranges – like the extent that we use as the bathroom, or the extent that we name the zama-zama graveyard,” he mentioned.

“Some are killed by rival gang members; others die throughout rockfalls and are crushed by huge boulders. I misplaced a buddy after he was robbed of his gold and shot within the head.”

Though life underground is perilous, it’s a threat that hundreds like Ndumiso are prepared to take, as they are saying the choice is to reside and die poor in a nation the place the unemployment fee stands at greater than 30%.