BREAKING | 14 illegal miners dead, scores injured at disused mine near Rustenburg

Fourteen illegal miners have died and numerous others were injured at a disused mine near Rustenburg, North West police have confirmed, according to a report on Tuesday morning. The incident occurred in Nkaneng, a location nearly 100 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. Colonel Adele Myburgh, a police spokeswoman, stated that most of the deceased miners were Basotho.

Thousands of unregistered miners, known as "zama zamas," operate in South Africa, scavenging abandoned mines for gold and other minerals under hazardous and perilous conditions. In this particular incident, 14 illegal miners lost their lives during a rockfall, while eight were hospitalized and an unknown number may still be trapped underground. Police are currently at the scene, which remains active.

The disaster took place at Nkaneng, located near the town of Rustenburg, an area in the North West province known for several established platinum mines. Illegal miners in South Africa come from various countries due to poverty and unemployment, and the sector has been associated with organized crime, assassinations, extortion, and other illegal activities. The conditions in which they work are extremely unsafe, with dilapidated infrastructure and the absence of safety measures.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the deployment of the army to assist police in combating illegal mining in February. In 2024, around 90 clandestine miners lost their lives when police blocked a disused gold mine near Stilfontein, west of Johannesburg, for weeks to drive out illegal workers. Nearly 2,000 miners emerged from the operation, many of them illegal immigrants from neighboring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique.

Police arrested 24 undocumented foreign nationals in the Stilfontein area in an operation against suspected illegal gold mining on July 31.