South African police arrest 565 illegal miners

Downtown Johannesburg, about 175km from where the illegal miners were allegedly working. Photo / Sopotnicki.com

South African police on Sunday say 340 illegal miners were arrested after being forced out of an abandoned mine shaft due to a lack of food and water.

This followed the previous arrest of 225 others, bringing the total number of clandestine miners arrested so far to 565.

Known locally as “zama zamas” (“those who try” in Zulu), the miners frustrate mining companies and are seen as a source of criminality by local residents.

The arrested miners resurfaced from a mine in Orkney, a gold mining town in the Klerksdorp district of the North West Province.

“An additional 340 illegal miners have resurfaced and have been placed under arrest,” police said in a statement on Sunday.

Earlier, a police spokesperson had told AFP 225 miners 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.

“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.

It added that the operation was ongoing as more miners could still resurface.

South African Police Service acting national commissioner Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya said more than 13,691 suspected illegal miners had been arrested in seven provinces since December 2023.

“We have seized R5 million [about $475,000] in cash and uncut diamonds worth R32m,” said Sibiya.

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