Maseru, Aug. 11 — South African Police Service (SAPS) has reported that 14 illegal miners have died and eight others sustained serious injuries after a rock fall at an abandoned mine near Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West Province.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Adele Myburgh said authorities had not yet established the identities or nationalities of those involved.
However, there are unconfirmed reports that among the miners there are Lesotho nationals.
According to police, the miners were underground when the rock fall occurred at the disused mine.
The incident happened near Rustenburg, approximately 100 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg.
Myburgh said the miners were operating in dangerous conditions inside abandoned mine workings, where there was little or no infrastructure to ensure their safety.
“They enter old mine shafts that have been abandoned and are in a severely deteriorated condition, without proper infrastructure or safety measures,” she said.
South Africa has thousands of informal miners, commonly known as zama zamas, who enter abandoned and disused mine shafts in search of gold and other valuable minerals.
Many of these miners come from different parts of Southern Africa, however, it is frequently conducted in hazardous conditions and has also been associated with organised criminal networks and other illegal activities, including extortion and killings.
Myburgh said the latest incident demonstrated the dangers faced by people working in abandoned mine shafts.
“There is no way to consider the places where they work as safe,” she said, adding that unstable underground structures can collapse without warning.
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