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People watch as Senzo Mchunu, South African police minister (not pictured), inspects outside the mineshaft where it is estimated that hundreds of illegal miners are believed to be hiding ...
South Africa's illegal miners – called zama zamas, or "take a chance" in colloquial Zulu – are estimated to number more than 50,000, a tenfold increase in two decades.
Zama zamas are illegal artisanal miners in South Africa who occupy closed or operational mines to mine for minerals such as gold, iron ore, coal, and manganese. The term zama zama loosely translates to "take a chance" in isiZulu and they use rudimentary tools and explosives for mining.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday lives should not be put at risk in a standoff between police and hundreds of illegal miners stuck underground in a disused mine shaft and ...
But Mnguni said these particular miners were not criminals but former mine employees who had been put out of work when mines closed and were left desperate. “The miners go back to the mine because they live in poverty,” he said. ___ Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa. 01/13/2025 16:52 -0500
According to Mining Weekly, the union sees itself as distinct from NUM in that it is "apolitical and noncommunist". [ 2 ] Competition with NUM over bargaining rights, especially at the Impala Platinum and Lonmin mines in the Rustenburg area culminated in the violent Marikana miners' strike and what became known as the Marikana Massacre on 16 ...
Inside South Africa's 'ruthless' gang-controlled gold mines WATCH: The dangerous world of illegal mining in South Africa Illegal trade booms in South Africa's 'super-strange looking' plants
Illegal gold miners, commonly referred to as "zama zamas", operate in abandoned mine shafts and use the empty gas cylinders, known as "phendukas", to process the stolen ore. The cylinders, often stolen, are first drained of gas, then cut open so that ore can be placed in them along with a steel ball which crushes the ore as the cylinder is rotated.