Outcry over 27 000 vacant teacher posts in South Africa
With over 27 000 teaching vacancies in South Africa, unions warn of a looming crisis that threatens the quality of education and calls for immediate action to recruit and support educators.
Fourteen illegal chrome miners lost their lives when a mine collapse occurred near Marikana in South Africa's North West province, with authorities suggesting that others might still be trapped, as reported by The Daily Maverick. The incident took place around 9 p.m. on Monday close to the Nkaneng informal settlement, situated approximately 130 km northwest of Johannesburg. The bodies were found on Tuesday morning near an abandoned mine shaft, according to the paper.
Eight miners sustained injuries, with three of them subsequently released from hospitals after being arrested on suspicion of engaging in illegal mining activities. Illegal chrome mining and illicit washing plants are prevalent in the area, where informal miners venture into abandoned gold and platinum operations to extract residual deposits no longer in use, establishing their own operations and searching for new deposits.
To combat the burgeoning illegal mining networks in North West, police have intensified their efforts, seizing 20 trucks and 15 excavators over the past two years. North West Police Commissioner Arthur Adams stated that they are not only targeting individuals found underground but are also focusing on dismantling the entire criminal value chain associated with these operations.
This includes those who finance these activities, provide equipment, facilitate access, transport illegal miners, and ultimately profit from illegally extracted minerals.
The crackdown by law enforcement authorities aims to disrupt not only the miners working underground but also the broader networks supporting illegal operations. Illegal mines generally operate outside formal safety and environmental regulations, subjecting miners and nearby communities to heightened risks. These operations can also cause damage to agricultural land, impair scarce water supplies, and inflict financial losses on legitimate mining companies.
The deaths in Marikana serve as a stark reminder of the human toll exacted by an illicit mining industry, which authorities are striving to disrupt by targeting the wider networks that finance and benefit from it.
Written by urgent.news from Mining.com's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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