Informal mining persists in South Africa despite police crackdowns

Jan 22, 2025

In mid-January 2024, over 1,000 hunger-weakened miners exited two abandoned mine shafts in Stilfontein, near Johannesburg in South Africa. They had been starved out by the police in Operation Vala Umgodi—meaning "plug the hole"—which had cut off food and water in an effort to "smoke out" a shadow workforce.