Illegal miners die, and no one cares

ATERRIBLE tragedy has been unfolding right beneath the feet of Johannesburgers in the past few weeks. It is estimated that 100 miners have been trapped underground.

Their bodies are being recovered one by one. To date, 24 bodies have been recovered from a mine near Roodepoort on the West Rand and an unknown number from one near Benoni on the East Rand.

A woman was reported as saying last week that she was happy that her 18-year-old brother’s body had been found, but she remained deeply anxious because he went underground with five other family members who had not surfaced. There is little hope now that they will be found alive.

In 2010, when 33 miners were trapped underground in Chile, the disaster and subsequent rescue of the miners, who were trapped for two months, became an international event.

But for the impoverished miners trapped in shafts in and around Johannesburg there will be no such rescue. Media attention is unlikely to be diverted from the Oscar Pistorius murder case.

Zama Zamas (it means “we are trying”) are miners who operate independently, disregarding the constraints of regulated gold mining. Beset by poverty and unemployment, hundreds of men descend into old and dangerous disused mines, spending weeks in dark tunnels removing gold-bearing ore, which, once refined, finds its way onto the formal market.

South African mines are notoriously unsafe, with high levels of fatalities. Zama-Zama miners use the same blasting techniques as formal-sector miners, but with very little safety gear so their work is considerably more perilous.

There is also illegal mining in legally operating mines in the shadows away from the scrutiny of mine managers. A 2007 Institute for Security Studies report said it was estimated that 10% of all gold mined in South Africa was stolen. The government estimates gold theft at R5.6-billion a year.

In February, reports emerged of miners being trapped below ground on the West Rand when a rival group stole their gold and blocked their exit. About 30 miners were rescued, but they indicated that more than a hundred others were still trapped. Rescue teams soon gave up because of dangerous underground gases, leaving relatives to retrieve the bodies.

But there has been no national outcry over the deaths, no response from the authorities or mining companies. The deaths of Zama-Zama miners are given scant coverage by the media.

In 2012, when 34 miners were killed at Marikana, there was a huge response. Political parties were quick to take up the cause of the dead mineworkers’ families. A commission of inquiry was set up to examine the killings. But there has been nothing comparable for the Zama Zamas.

Perhaps it is because they are poor black Zimbabwean immigrants and therefore not important enough for political parties as an election draws near.

The responses of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and of labour federation Cosatu to the deaths of Zama-Zama miners have been minimal. Neither organisation publicly campaigned for their rescue.

At its congress last year, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) resolved to focus on rebuilding the labour movement. It recognised the need to connect with poor workers who have been abandoned by Cosatu and its historically big mining affiliate, NUM.

The government and the mining houses have long since abandoned the cause of poor workers, and nothing can be expected of them. It is up to ordinary South Africans to take a stand and demand that the lives of poor immigrant miners receive attention so that they too can be protected by our constitution, which covers everyone, not only those who can vote.

Motala is executive director of the Community Agency for Social Enquiry. This article was first published by the SA Civil Society Information Service