Illegal gold miners climb down an old rope as they enter a disused commercial gold mine. (Photo: EPA / Kim Ludbrook) 
Amid reports that as many as 4,000 illegal miners are somehow stuck underground near the North West town of Stilfontein, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told the media on Wednesday: “We will smoke them out.”
But just how many need to be “smoked out” by the “surrender or starve” strategy undertaken by Operation Vala Umgodi - which seeks to disrupt illegal mining - is anyone’s guess.
Earlier this month, police said hundreds of zama zamas were arrested in the North West town of Orkney after the police choked off their food and water supplies, forcing the illegal miners to the surface.
Read more: Hundreds of illegal miners arrested after underground food and water supplies cut
The region is a hive of zama zama activity and Daily Maverick understands that attention has now turned to another shaft where the state is trying to “smoke them out”.
Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone, a spokesperson for North West SAPS, said a volunteer went down the mine shaft on Tuesday and reported that there were an estimated 4,000 zama zamas trapped below, and they were very weak from lack of food and water.
But there is reason to be sceptical about that number.
“He tried to do a head count, but we are still trying to confirm the exact number that was trapped. Neighbouring mines have indicated that they are unable to help as this particular shaft is unsafe,” said Mokgwabone.
It seems doubtful that anything approaching an accurate roll call could have been undertaken in such circumstances. ‘Thumbsuck’ is the term that immediately comes to mind.
Mokgwabone said refreshments were lowered to the zamas and police were hopeful that the illegal miners will emerge eventually.
Two mining security analysts who Daily Maverick spoke with said they doubted there were 4,000 zamas in the shafts, but as many as 2,000 was plausible.
One analyst suggested that the 4,000 figure might be a ruse to ensure that if humanitarian aid is sent below, there will be food supplies for some illegal miners to remain underground to continue to ply their dangerous but cash-spinning trade. Zamas spend weeks and even months underground, and rely on supplies from the surface to stay alive.
Ntshavheni’s remarks provoked outrage on social media site X, with more than one commentator calling them “inhumane” and “distasteful”.
The price of gold has been scaling record highs this year, providing an incentive for a swelling army of unemployed men - mostly from Lesotho and Mozambique, the old “labour-sending” areas for South Africa’s gold industry - to take the leap into the shafts to extract the precious metal, which often winds up getting laundered in refineries in Dubai and India.
It remains to be seen how many get “smoked out” in this chapter of Operation Vala Umgodi and those that are to follow. DM