This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.Sunday Times reports that a huge illegal gold mining operation has become the economic pillar of the Angelo informal settlement on Gauteng's East Rand, driving an informal economy that employs residents and pumps cash into local businesses.
Production on a grand scale involves multiple “plants” in which people employed by zama zamas sort, grind and extract gold from sand excavated from a nearby abandoned mine shaft. Illegal miners claim they have been embraced by the community of Angelo, the site of tragedy two weeks ago when 17 people died due to a gas leak. “We are an asset to this community. If we were to leave, this place will go down. We pay rent for shacks, we drink in taverns and buy groceries from the shops,” says Tebogo Khotso, a Lesotho national who came to SA in 2016. “We are not criminals. All we want is for the South African government to allow us to work properly,” said Ramenkane Dihoehla, who has been an illegal miner for years. Last week, a group of illegal miners gave the Sunday Times a tour of their 24-hour operation. The tour through the area revealed a rudimentary but efficient production line involving more than 100 illegal miners. They are attached to 12 different operational plants scattered across the settlement. Each plant has about five to 10 workers and hires about 50 women whose job is to grind the soil as it is brought from under the ground. The soil is taken to one of a dozen plants where it is ground into smaller particles. After it has been processed, the soil is moved to another plant where gold particles are extracted from the ground soil. Finally, the gold is taken to “a white man” in Johannesburg, whom no-one is willing to name. The gold mine is one of several operations in the area, with a large illegal coal mining facility a few kilometres away. Shop owner Thabo Mokoena said the zama zamas do not cause problems for the community.
- Read the full original of the extensive report in the above regard by Penwell Dlamini at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Illegal mining can have devastating impact on ecosystems, at IOL
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page