South African police arrest 225 illegal miners

South African police on Sunday said that 225 illegal miners were arrested after being forced out of an abandoned mine shaft due to a lack of food and water.

Blocked routes

The miners, known locally as “zama zamas” (“those who try” in Zulu), resurfaced from a mine in Orkney, a gold mining town in the Klerksdorp district of the North West Province.

A police spokesperson told AFP on Sunday that the men had been arrested.

They were forced out “as a result of starvation and dehydration”, police said, after security agencies blocked routes used by their accomplices to deliver food and water to the mine.

Police said they were still monitoring the abandoned mine shafts “as more and more illegal miners resurface”.

“These 225 illegal miners are part of others believed to be hundreds if not a thousand illegal miners who are stuck underground,” a statement issued late on Saturday said.

Acting National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya said that more than 13 691 suspected illegal miners had been arrested in seven provinces since December 2023.

“We have seized R5 million in cash and uncut diamonds worth R32 million,” said Sibiya.

Source of criminality

Thousands of illegal miners, many of them hailing from other countries, operate in the mineral-rich nation, living and working in arduous conditions.

Their activities frustrate mining companies and are seen as a source of criminality by local residents.

The majority of those that have been arrested are South Africans, Mozambicans, and Basotho nationals.

The SAPS will update on other nationalities as and when more illegal miners resurface.