‘Mantšali Phakoana
Scores of unemployed Basotho men continue to flock to South Africa where they each pay up to M150 000 bribe to security personnel to gain access to some disused shafts owned by the mines where they engage in illegal mining.
While locals have been known to trek to the neighbouring country since the 1950s to look for gold in abandoned mines, some now have a new modus operandi.
The illegal miners – known as Zama-zamas – now go to registered mines still in operation where they bribe everyone who matters to gain access to disused shafts where they can spend months looking for leftovers of the precious mineral. There are more gold deposits here than other abandoned sites where illegal mining has taken place for decades.
From security personnel manning the entrance gates to camera monitors, and those responsible for mineshaft elevators, the zama-zama make sure these are all in their pockets to ensure safe entry and passage to the abandoned shafts which are still owned by the operating mines.
Upon entry, they are even given uniforms to appear like they are genuine employees. But instead of joining the mine workers, they divert and go to the disused shafts, kilometres away from scrutiny.
Although the dangers of illegal mining are well-documented, the men cannot resist the lure of huge cash rewards in the bowels of the earth, where they spend as much as six months, at one stretch.
Despite enduring challenges of being arrested or dying from the suffocating heat underground, the illegal miners say they are attracted by the prospects of earning huge amounts of money to secure a future for themselves and their families back home in Lesotho.
Theyclaim that they make between R200,000 and R400,000 from one stint of up to six months underground.
But this comes at a high cost and their lives are intricate.
A zama-zama, *Thabo from Mphosong in Leribe district told theReporter in an interview this week that they pay mine personnel between M100 000 and M150 000 in order to gain access to the abandoned mineshafts where they work only in their underwear to cope with the sweltering heat.
It is not an easy undertaking as scores have been arrested but the risks are worth taking, he said.
*Thabo said he joined the gangs in 2007, after being employed as a machine operator at a gold mine in Carletonville, South Africa for nine years.
He was hired as a miner in 1999 on a monthly salary of M4800. During this time, he was also selling food, drinks and tobacco to illegal miners.
Unlike most of Basotho men who migrate to South Africa to search for jobs, *Thabo decided to resign and join the zama-zamas.
“My job was risky. Although there were safety measures, the salary was not enough to cover my living costs.
“When I was working, I would also sell a meal of pap and meat for M200, a can of soft drink for M100 and M50 for a cigarette to illegal miners who were working within the same mine as us. We were just separated by mining shaft directions,” he recounted.
As legal miners they would also play middlemen for the zama-zamas by taking their gold to their bosses outside and get paid M2 000 per delivery.
“One day I decided to quit my job. I went underground and never came back. I had realised that Basotho without qualifications and South African IDs are turned into slaves at the mines.
“They work at the most treacherous divisions in the mine while they are paid peanuts,” he said, adding that with this side hustle, he was able to make M1000 every day.
*Thabo further noted that their entry to the abandoned mineshafts has been made easier through their collaboration with mine security personnel.
Another illegal miner, Monaheng Masiu of Thaba-Tseka Ha-Simieone said he joined the zama-zamas in 2009 after he was retrenched from a mine in Rustenburg when it closed down due to unprofitability.
He was arrested in 2018 along with other 22 Basotho men and other nationalities from Mozambique, Malawi, Nigerian and Zimbabwe. They served four years in prison and were later deported.
“We were just unlucky. We were arrested in 2018 while we were underground and released in 2022. I was already seeing the results of my hard work as a zama-zama. After selling our gold, we would earn M200 000 or more each within four to six months,” he told theReporter in an interview this week.
Masiu is proud that he has built a decent home, educated his children, and bought cars of his dreams but he still wants to go back. This time he hopes to raise enough money to start a public transport business.
Despite his determination, Masiu knows what lies ahead of him in his quest to return to the City of Gold, including prison or even death.
According to Masiu, one of the greatest dangers for illegal miners is the shortage of food and water underground.
“The legally employed mine workers sell food to us, but sometimes when security is too tight, we spend months without a stable supply of food. We suffer yet we have wads of cash in our wallets,” he noted.
He added that occasionally, their ‘bosses’ on the surface arrange food to be lowered underground under the pretext of moving mining explosives, but this is not always successful as the containers are intercepted by mining guards.
To avoid suffocating to death, the zama-zamas sometimes make holes in large pipes that transfer gases out of the mines so that food can be lowered down undetected. However, this practice has resulted in gas leaks and explosions that have claimed lives.
In a statement released on February 22, 2024, the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said there has been an increase in illegal mining with miners risking their lives to mine in completely unsafe and hazardous conditions.
The ministry said in the process, the SA government pays the ultimate price due to underground fires and fall of ground accidents.
“These illegal activities have become fodder for crime syndicates who control mineshafts. In May last year, four illegal miners also died after a fight broke out at the Transvaal Gold Mining Estate in Dientjie in Mpumalanga.”
Illegal mining has made a considerable dent on the neighbouring country’s economy.
“The cost of illegal mining is estimated to be over R70 billion annually in gold alone, resulting in huge losses of revenue for both government and the mining sector.
“Importantly, these illegal activities have a negative impact on the safety and health of surrounding communities. This also impacts on the overall wellbeing of the environment and is a risk to the sustainability of the mining industry,” noted the statement.
Illegal mining in SA has had a huge cost to Lesotho too. On May 18, 2023, 31 suspected Basotho illegal miners died at a ventilation shaft that was last operational in the 1990s at a mine in Virginia, Welkom. The bodies have not been repatriated up to this day due to security concerns.
In June 2022, another 22 suspected illegal miners had died at an unused mine in Orkney, North West following an underground fire.
In 2009, over 80 zama-zamas died after inhaling poisonous gases caused by a fire that broke out in an abandoned area of a mine in Welkom.
And in July 2022, about 97 illegal miners were arrested, many of whom were reportedly from Lesotho.
South African media reports show that in April 2022, 77 illegal miners appeared in the Orkney Magistrate’s Court in the North West after they were rescued from an underground mine; 60 were reportedly from Lesotho.
The suspects were charged with trespassing, illegal mining, and contravention of Section 49(1)(a) of the Immigration Act, 2002 (Act No. 13 of 2002).
Police said the illegal miners had sought assistance from mine management when they faced starvation. They brought up four decomposed bodies.
Lesotho’s minister of foreign affairs and international relations, Lejone Mpotjoane, this week said although the government is aware of the high rate of unemployment in the country, it does not condone any form of illegal activities by Basotho in South Africa.
Mpotjoane reiterated the government’s efforts to set up various projects in agriculture, energy and exploration to create employment. This would help reduce the migration of Basotho to the neighbouring country.
“We’re aware of the dire unemployment in the country, but we do not condone any form of illegal activities by Basotho in South Africa,” he added. (*Not his real name)
