Along with about 600 other men, Ndumiso lives and works in a small gang-controlled “town” – complete with markets and a red light district – that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.

Ndumiso told the BBC that after being laid off by a big mining firm, he decided to join the gang in its underground world to become what is known as a “zama zama”, an illegal miner.

He digs for the precious metal and surfaces every three months or so to sell it on the black market for a huge profit, earning more than he ever did before – though the risks now are far higher.

“The underground life is ruthless. Many do not make it out alive,” said the 52-year-old, who spoke to on condition that his real name was not used as he feared reprisals.

“In one level of the shaft there are bodies and skeletons. We call that the zama-zama graveyard,” he said.

But for those who survive, like Ndumiso, the job can be lucrative.

While he sleeps on sandbags after back-breaking days underground, his family lives in a house he has bought in a township of the main city, Johannesburg.

He made cash payments of 130,000 rand (about $7,000; £5,600) for the one-bedroom house, which he has now extended to include another three bedrooms, he said.

An illegal miner for about eight years, Ndumiso has managed to send his three children to fee-paying schools – one of whom is now in university.

“I have to provide for my wife and children and this is the only way I know,” he said, adding that he preferred to toil underground rather than adding to the high crime rate by becoming a car-hijacker or robber, after spending many years trying to find legal work.

His current job is at a mine in the small town of Stilfontein, around 90 miles (145km) south-west of Johannesburg, which is at the center of global attention after a government minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, promised to “smoke out” the hundreds of miners who were underground there, with the security forces preventing food and water from being sent down.

“Criminals are not to be helped. Criminals are to be persecuted,” Ntshavheni said.

A campaign group, The Society for the Protection of Our Constitution, has launched a court case to demand access to the mineshaft, which police say is about 2km (1.2 miles) deep.

The court has given an interim ruling, stating that food and other essentials could be delivered to the miners.

Ndumiso works at a different shaft at the mine, and surfaced last month, before the current stand-off.

He is now waiting to see how the situation unfolds, before deciding whether to return.

The stand-off follows a government decision to crack down on an industry that has spiralled out of control, with mafia-like gangs running it.

“The country has been grappling with the scourge of illegal mining for many years, and mining communities bore the brunt of peripheral criminal activities such as rape, robbing and damage to public infrastructure, among others,” said Mikateko Mahlaule, chairman of the parliamentary committee on mineral resources.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said the mine was a “crime scene”, but police were negotiating with the miners to end the stand-off, rather than going down to arrest them.

“Law-enforcement authorities have information that some of the miners may be heavily armed. It is well-established that illegal miners are recruited by criminal gangs and form part of wider organised crime syndicates,” he added.

Ndumiso was among hundreds of thousands of workers – both locals and nationals of neighbouring states like Lesotho – who have been retrenched as South Africa’s mining industry has gone into decline over the last three decades. Many of these have gone on to become “zama zamas” at the abandoned mines.

South Africa-based Benchmark Foundation researcher David van Wyk, who has studied the industry, said there were about 6,000 abandoned mines in the country.

Ndumiso described the underground mine as a vast network of interconnected tunnels, resembling highways, complete with painted signs directing miners to various levels. Some levels served specific purposes, such as toilets or makeshift graveyards for miners who perished underground. Deaths were a common occurrence, resulting from gang violence, accidents like rockfalls, or robberies. Ndumiso shared a personal loss, recounting how a friend was killed for his gold.

Despite the constant dangers, thousands of miners like Ndumiso risk their lives because the alternative—living in extreme poverty—is untenable in a country with an unemployment rate exceeding 30%. The underground world operates as a microcosm of society, highlighting the desperation and resilience of those driven to such perilous work.

Source: BBC