South African police cut off supplies to illegal miners in a bid to 'smoke them out'

South African authorities are engaged in a standoff with hundreds of illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country's North West province, having cut off their food and water supplies as part of a strategy to "smoke them out".

The miners in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.

Police have spent weeks working to clear the abandoned gold mine, as part of its Vala Umgodi (Close the Hole) operation to round up and arrest illegal miners.

North West police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone said information received from those who recently helped bring three miners to the surface indicated that as many as 4,000 miners may be underground. Police have not provided an official estimate.

At least 1,000 illegal miners — known locally as zama-zamas — have surfaced in recent weeks with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going without supplies.

Police said on Thursday that they were continuing to guard areas around the mine to catch those appearing from underground. A decomposed body was recovered on Thursday, and pathologists were on the scene, said spokesperson Athlenda Mathe.

Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Wednesday that the government would not send any help to the illegal miners because they were involved in criminality.

"We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped. We didn’t send them there," Ntshavheni said.

Senior police and defence officials are due to visit the area on Friday to support the operation, according to the authorities.

Mining security analysts have questioned the police estimate of the number of zama-zamas underground, and say that about 2,000 is more realistic, local media reported.

Illegal mining is a decades-old problem in South Africa's old gold mining areas, with miners entering closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.

The zama-zamas are often from neighbouring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.

Their presence has also created tensions with nearby communities, who say that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape

In November last year, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed thousands of soldiers to help tackle illegal mining as part of a 492 million rand (€26 million) operation.

Earlier this month, acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya said that at least 13,690 illegal mining suspects had been arrested across seven provinces since December 2023.

The Minerals Council South Africa — an industry advocacy organisation — has said that illegal mining costs the country's economy tens of billions of rand each year in lost export income, royalties and taxes.