South Africa wants to ‘smoke out’ illegal miners, thousands trapped underground

There are thousands of miners trapped underground in South Africa. The police have surrounded a mine where illegal gold mining is taking place. Miners who come up are arrested.

The police have closed the access roads to the illegal mine. There is still one way out; the police are waiting there to arrest the miners.

Around 4,000 people work in the closed mine in Stilfontein, in north-west South Africa. They are in dire need of food, drinks and other basic items. The police intend to “smoke them out”; by cutting off the supply lines, it is hoped that they will escape through the only remaining exit.

It is said that about a thousand miners have already done so in recent weeks. According to witnesses, many were “weak, hungry and sick” after weeks without supplies.

The minister in charge of the case says that the government does not intend to help the people who are still in the mine: “We will not send help to criminals. We will smoke them out and they will come up.”

Many illegal miners work in South Africa, digging for gold nuggets in abandoned mines. These mines are no longer profitable for large mining companies, but they provide income for poor workers. They also come from neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and sometimes stay underground for weeks.

The police have been working for some time to stop illegal mining. This would lead to more crime in different places; there would be a fight over land, also with groups to whom the gold is sold.

Reporter Elles van Gelder visited several illegal mines three years ago: