[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
The BBC has just blown open a report on rampant sexual abuse of children in the illegal mines across South Africa.
Under an alias to protect himself from the vicious criminal gangs that run the illegal mining industry, a young immigrant man in his late 20s, Jonathan, describes the worst thing he witnessed while working underground.
Lured by promises of easy money in one of the many abandoned mines – shut down by multinationals the moment profits dried up – Jonathan found himself in a hellhole carved into the earth. Down there, beneath layers of dust and despair, he witnessed things done to minors that no one should ever see, let alone survive to speak of.
He said he saw children being abused, many of whom were recruited for cheap labour, while others were brought in specifically for sex, campaigners say.
The grim reality of what these young people endured surfaced only after dozens of illegal miners died near Stilfontein late last year, trapped underground after police sealed off the mine.
With a voice as steady as it is haunted, Jonathan recalls the suffocating heat, the endless hours, the scraps of food, and the filthy corners they called beds – conditions that slowly broke his body.
But what still claws at his memory are the things that happened to the underage miners in that shaft, things that should never happen in any corner of this earth.
“I used to see these kids in the mine – teenagers actually, 15, 17-year-olds.
“Others used to take advantage of them sometimes. It was a little bit scary, and I wasn’t comfortable with it.”
He said they were raped by adult miners who promised to give them some of the gold they found in exchange for sex.
“If that kid is desperate for money, he will take the risk.”
Jonathan says the kids in that mine were all foreigners, also lured in, clueless, and completely unprepared for the nightmare waiting underground.
Jonathan describes how the children would approach teams of miners for protection but “that team would have conditions”.
Sex was also used as punishment if the teenagers failed to complete a task for their team.
Mining researcher and activist Makhotla Sefuli says criminal syndicates deliberately hunt down children to work in South Africa’s illegal mines. Many are snatched from neighbouring countries, trafficked like cargo, and fed lies about landing jobs in the formal mining sector. In reality, they’re dumped into the belly of abandoned shafts and left to rot in the dark.
They have no idea what they walk into, and by the time they realise, there is no way out.
“Their passports are confiscated when they get to South Africa… It is common knowledge that these young boys are being abused,” Mr Sefuli says.
Another miner with the alias Tshepo says he saw older men forcing young boys to have sex with them underground.
“In some instances, they did it for the money. Some are recruited solely for that purpose, because of the financial incentives that will come with the practice of maybe trading sex underground.”
He says he can see how deeply this affects the children.
“They change their behaviour patterns and have trust issues. They don’t want you to get close to them, because they feel that they can no longer trust anyone.”
South Africa’s illegal mining underworld exploded into global view last year during a tense standoff between police and miners at the Buffelsfontein gold mine, just outside Stilfontein in the North West Province.
Authorities had been scrambling to clamp down on the sprawling illegal mining trade, one that the government claims bled the economy of R60 billion in 2023 alone.
In December, they launched Operation Vala Umgodi -Zulu for “seal the hole” – a crackdown designed to hit the gangs hard. As part of the operation, police choked off supplies of food and water to the Stilfontein shaft, a move one minister bluntly described as an effort to “smoke out” the miners. The men, starving and dehydrated, were reportedly too terrified to surface, fearing immediate arrest.
But soon, haunting footage began leaking out – emaciated men pleading for rescue, rows of body bags lining the tunnel floors. Public outcry followed, and eventually, a court stepped in, forcing authorities to intervene and bring the miners to the surface.
Among the survivors were many who claimed to be underage. With no documents to prove their age, many being undocumented migrants, the authorities ordered medical tests to determine it.
The results were chilling: the Department of Social Development confirmed that 31 of the rescued miners were, in fact, children. All were from Mozambique. By November, 27 of them had been quietly repatriated across the border.
“They went through trauma, because some of them also saw others being sexually exploited,” Save the Children South Africa’s CEO Gugu Xaba tells the BBC. “Just the feeling that they may not come out of there destroyed those children mentally.
“The adult miners would start by grooming them, by acting like they like them.” She says the children were then made to perform sexual acts on the adults and they were then raped, days after day.
When asked whether anyone would face charges over the sexual abuse allegations, both the police and the Department of Social Development (DSD) stayed silent. A source close to the Stilfontein cases said many of the rescued children are too traumatised or too afraid to testify. Their silence speaks volumes.
Meanwhile, the illegal mining machine grinds on, unchecked and insatiable.
With around 6,000 disused mines scattered across South Africa, most left wide open, the trade shows no sign of slowing. And as long as they remain accessible, so will the children – lured, trafficked, and thrown into the dark.
[Source: BBC]
