Fourteen illegal miners have been killed and eight others seriously injured after a rockfall at a disused mine near Rustenburg in South Africa’s North West province, police said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at an abandoned mine roughly 130 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg, an area known for extensive mining activity. Police said officials were still making their way to the site, and details about the victims, including their nationalities, had not yet been established.
The tragedy highlights the persistent dangers faced by South Africa’s so-called “zama zamas” — informal miners who enter abandoned and disused mine shafts in search of gold and other valuable minerals.
Operating deep underground, often without proper equipment, structural support or emergency safeguards, these miners routinely face the threat of rockfalls, flooding, fires and other life-threatening hazards. Their activities have also become increasingly associated with organised criminal networks operating around abandoned mines.
The latest deaths add to a long record of deadly incidents in South Africa’s abandoned mining sector, where poverty, unemployment and the search for income continue to drive thousands of people into hazardous underground workings.
Authorities were expected to assess the extent of the damage and determine the circumstances surrounding the rockfall as investigations continued.
