RISKING LIVES FOR SCRAPS OF GOLD

Hundreds of zama-zamas stay underground, sometimes for weeks

WITH the arrest of more than a dozen illegal miners in Ekurhuleni this week, South Africa is not getting any closer to resolving the issue of zama-zamas, or illegal miners, as they have become known.

Hundreds of the gold diggers are underground sometimes for weeks and even more, and more are joining the already-increasing numbers at opencast sites left behind by the removal of mine tailings.

The sites are generally located near Gauteng highways and it has become a common sight to see the miners working in plain sight near the roads.

Sites like Main Reef Road, near the Maraisburg off-ramp on the N1 north, Germiston, and on the N17 in Springs are just a few such places where scores of miners are working, claiming that they only want to make a living.

Many of them are undocumented foreigners and they share a common fear of being arrested, harassed and bullied by SAPS officers, metro police and security guards who are in charge of some mines.

“We hardly get locked up,” they say, but this comes at a cost. “We have to pay and sometimes we get robbed under the ‘emgodini’ (tunnels in the mine).”

The miners wish they could get permits. “It is only the scraps we are mining for after all,” said one.

Rasta, who is from Zimbabwe, has been mining at his spot for more than eight years and has two children and is raising them with the money which he makes here. He collects two or three ounces at a time.

On my visit to Main Reef Road, and while in conversation with two underground miners, easily identifiable with the orange knee caps and dirty clothes, we were approached by police officers.

We were thoroughly searched as they suspected I was a gold dealer, but on discovering I was a journalist, I was set free.

This scored me much credit with the miners who then invited me on an underground trip. That is a story for another day.

HUNDREDS of the gold diggers are underground sometimes for weeks and even more, and even more are joining the already-increasing numbers at opencast sites left behind by the removal of mine tailings.

THERE is safety in numbers, therefore the miners always work in teams. They sift through soil and collect stones from which they extract gold.

RASTA, who does not want to be identified, says people from several countries live in harmony here, but it is not always safe.

THE soil gets collected from a spot near an underground entrance. This is a spot that miners fight for as it is a no man’s land.

ONE of the illegal miners collects water to sift with. The only source of water is a broken sewerage pipe.

SEWERAGE water is used to wash down the soil during the sifting process.

TEAMS carry soil from a stone-rich area.