A tragic disaster has shaken South Africa’s mining sector, after a collapse at a legally operated mine waste dump killed 14 people suspected of being unauthorized artisanal miners on Monday night. Local law enforcement has launched a full investigation into the incident, which left eight others injured and left an undetermined number of people potentially trapped beneath tons of fallen rubble, according to an official police statement.
The dump site was in active legal operation by a local mining company for processing platinum and other precious metals, and authorities have not yet determined how the group of miners gained unauthorized access to the site. Most of the unauthorized miners are believed to be undocumented migrants from neighboring Lesotho, a detail confirmed by Lieutenant General Arthur Adams, regional police chief who visited the disaster scene on Tuesday morning.
In South Africa, these informal, unauthorized miners are widely known by the Zulu term “zama zamas”, which translates to “those who try their luck”. The trade has become pervasive across the country, as thousands of desperate workers scrape together a meager living by digging for leftover precious metals in abandoned mine shafts and disused waste dump sites.
Adams told local South African broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that the outer retaining walls of the waste dump unexpectedly caved in while the zama zamas were working on site. Of the eight injured miners, three have already been released from medical care and taken into police custody. Adams confirmed that every member of the group is an undocumented foreign national, and all surviving miners will face criminal charges for illegal mining and trespassing once the investigation concludes.
As of Tuesday, excavation operations at the site have been paused while search teams assess the conditions for anyone still trapped beneath the rubble. The search for potential remaining survivors is still ongoing, according to Adams.
Fatal accidents involving unauthorized miners are not an uncommon occurrence in South Africa, where the once-booming mining industry – long the backbone of the national economy – has contracted sharply over recent decades. Large multinational mining firms have abandoned dozens of operations across the country that are no longer profitable to run, but the lingering promise of untapped gold and platinum deposits continues to draw desperate workers, most of whom are undocumented migrants with few other economic options.
Just last year, in January 2024, recovery teams pulled 78 bodies from a long-abandoned mine shaft in Stilfontein, a small town located southwest of Johannesburg. Those miners had become trapped after a national police crackdown on illegal mining at closed disused sites sealed off the shaft they were working in.
This latest disaster renewes longstanding public debate over how South Africa should address the growing crisis of illegal mining, which puts thousands of vulnerable workers at fatal risk every year while also creating widespread environmental and public safety hazards across the country’s mining regions.