Smoke them out’: South Africa cuts supplies to thousands of illegal miners

An estimated 4,000 illegal gold miners are hiding underground in South Africa after the government cut off food and water in an effort to “smoke them out” and arrest them.

The miners have been in a mineshaft in Stilfontein, in the North West province, for about a month.

They have refused to cooper­ate with authorities as some are undocumented – coming from neighbouring countries like Leso­tho and Mozambique – and fear being deported.

Illegal miners are called “zama zama” (take a chance in Zulu) and operate in abandoned mines in the mineral-rich country. Illegal mining costs the South African government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales each year.

Many South African mines have closed down in recent years and workers have been sacked.

To survive, the miners and undocumented migrants go beneath the surface to escape poverty and dig up gold to sell it on the black market.

—BBC