SYNDICATES FUEL ILLEGAL MINING CRISIS, SAYS RESEARCHER

As law enforcement agencies intensify crackdowns on illegal miners, known as zama zamas, a leading researcher argues that the focus on individual workers overlooks the highly organised criminal syndicates driving the illicit industry.

This comes as police operations continue, including a recent raid at the Sheba Gold Mine in Barberton, Mpumalanga, where nearly 1 000 undocumented people were arrested.

David Van Wyk, Chief Researcher at the Bench Marks Foundation, asserts that while authorities target the miners themselves, the larger criminal networks often escape scrutiny. “Very often it’s also operated by syndicates who have a situation of parallel operations in existing mines, ghost workers and so on, who the police never go after,” Van Wyk stated. “They always go after the mine workers but not the syndicates.”

The Minerals Council of South Africa describes the illegal mining market as a “well-managed 5-tier syndicate system.” This structure ranges from the underground workers (Tier 1) to international receivers and distributors who work through legitimate-appearing fronts (Tier 5).

The government acknowledges that these illegal activities have become “fodder for crime syndicates who control mineshafts,” costing the South African economy over R70 billion annually in gold alone.

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A legacy of retrenchment and desperation

The proliferation of illegal mining is deeply rooted in South Africa’s socio-economic history. According to Van Wyk, the decline of large-scale gold mining over the past three decades has resulted in mass retrenchments and thousands of abandoned mines.

“Large scale industrial gold mining in South Africa has been in decline for the last 30 years,” he explained. This has led to tens of thousands of workers losing their jobs. Many of these workers originate from “labour sending areas in Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, [and the] Eastern Cape.”

When these mines retrenched them, many former employees — often described by Van Wyk as “semi-illiterate and illiterate” — were unable to navigate the complex process of claiming their pensions and benefits.

“They find themselves trapped in South Africa and suddenly they become illegal immigrants,” he said. This precarious situation leaves them with little choice but to return to the mines, often under the control of criminal enterprises.

The issue is compounded by what Van Wyk calls “ghost mining,” where an illegal operation runs parallel to a legal one. He pointed to the Barberton case, where there were “allegations of more than 1 000 people being underground at a mine that is operational and functional.” He added, “that’s highly problematic and needs to be investigated because it raises questions about how so many people can gain access to a formal mine.”

A multi-faceted national threat

The consequences of illegal mining extend far beyond economic losses. The Minerals Council highlights severe social impacts, including violence, the destruction of community fabric through bribery and threats and environmental damage from unsafe refining methods.

Furthermore, the practice poses significant safety risks, not only to the zama zamas but also to employees of legal mining operations and the specialised, voluntary Mines Rescue Services teams called upon in emergencies.

In response, the South African government has deployed the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to support police operations and has established multi-departmental forums to combat the issue. However, the Minerals Council notes that “State involvement is not always optimal because of the shortage of human and financial resources, overlapping jurisdictions and slow decision and implementation processes.”

While authorities continue operations like ‘Vala Umgodi’ (Close the Hole), which led to the recent arrests in Barberton, critics maintain that a sustainable solution requires addressing both the desperate individuals forced into the trade and the sophisticated criminal networks that exploit them.