In the small town of Stilfontein, some 90 miles from the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, hundreds, possibly thousands, of illegal miners—locally called zama zamas (which can be translated as “hustle hustle,” people who take risks to work)—have been underground in an abandoned mine shaft for more than a month. They are refusing to exit the mine and are in a standoff with the South African Police Service.
The police have posted officers waiting for them on the surface. Although more than 1,000 miners have already come up and been arrested, among them some children, authorities have no idea how many miners are still in the shaft 2,000 meters underground. The bodies of dead miners have been dragged to the surface by rope in recent weeks.
At the beginning of November, South African authorities said that they would end illegal mining in an operation called Vala Umgodi (“Close the Pit”). That effort has proven to be deeply challenging for civil authorities.
South African police halted the delivery of all food supplies to the miners to pressure them to resurface. A minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, said in fact that no help would be sent underground to the miners. “We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out,” she said. “Criminals are not to be helped; criminals are to be prosecuted.”
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Russell Pollitt, S.J., is America’s Johannesburg correspondent.
With thanks to the America Magazine and Russell Pollitt SJ, where this article originally appeared.
