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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
When zama zamas go hungry deep underground in the abandoned mines where they illegally mine for gold, they sometimes resort to eating a mixture of toothpaste and toilet paper.A few weeks ago, a warning message typed by the authorities and translated into Sesotho, Xhosa and Tsonga circulated among illegal miners in Stilfontein, urging people underground to "exit at the Margaret Shaft as it is the safest existing exit".One zama zama told GroundUp that about a hundred people had died, citing a WhatsApp group used by illegal miners, but this was not possible to verify.When zama zamas go hungry deep underground in the abandoned mines where they illegally mine for gold, they sometimes resort to eating a mixture of toothpaste and toilet paper."You mix a soft porridge with water," one of the miners said, miming his belly becoming full. "It hurts to swallow. Your hunger stops for a while."He spoke to GroundUp in Stilfontein, the former mining town in the North West, where zama zamas were recently cut off from food for approximately two months as part of a national clampdown on illegal mining, dubbed "Vala Umgodi" or "Close the Hole".Beginning in late September, police and the military shut down access points used by gold syndicates for the delivery of supplies underground in an attempt to force the miners to surface. "We are going to smoke them out," South Africa's Minister in the Presidency warned.Last week, the police estimated that as many as 4 500 zama zamas remained underground. They have subsequently revised this figure to a few hundred. Nobody knows for sure how many people are still inside the tunnels, which form an interconnected labyrinth of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of kilometres, surrounding some of the deepest mine shafts in the world. In the past two weeks, nearly 1 200 zama
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