Along side about 600 different males, Ndumiso lives and works in a small gang-controlled “the city” – entire with markets and a crimson gentle district – that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.

Ndumiso informed the BBC that when being laid off by way of a large mining company, he made up our minds to enroll in the crowd in its underground international to grow to be what’s referred to as a “zama zama”, an unlawful miner.

He digs for the valuable steel and surfaces each and every 3 months or so as to promote it at the black marketplace for an enormous benefit, incomes greater than he ever did sooner than – even though the hazards now are a long way upper.

“The underground lifestyles is ruthless. Many don’t make it out alive,” stated the 52-year-old, who spoke to the BBC provided that his actual identify was once now not used as he feared reprisals.

“In a single degree of the shaft there are our bodies and skeletons. We name that the zama-zama graveyard,” he stated.

However for many who continue to exist, like Ndumiso, the task may also be profitable.

Whilst he sleeps on sandbags after back-breaking days underground, his circle of relatives lives in a area he has purchased in a township of the principle town, Johannesburg.

He made money bills of 130,000 rand (about $7,000; £5,600) for the one-bedroom area, which he has now prolonged to incorporate every other 3 bedrooms, he stated.

An unlawful miner for approximately 8 years, Ndumiso has controlled to ship his 3 youngsters to fee-paying faculties – one among whom is now in college.

“I’ve to supply for my spouse and kids and that is the one approach I do know,” he stated, including that he most well-liked to toil underground slightly than including to the top crime fee by way of turning into a car-hijacker or robber, after spending a few years looking for criminal paintings.

His present task is at a mine within the small the city of Stilfontein, round 90 miles (145km) south-west of Johannesburg, which is on the centre of worldwide consideration after a central authority minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, promised to “smoke out” the masses of miners who have been underground there, with the safety forces fighting meals and water from being despatched down.

“Criminals aren’t to be helped. Criminals are to be persecuted,” Ntshavheni stated.

A marketing campaign crew, The Society for the Coverage of Our Charter, has introduced a court docket case to call for get entry to to the mineshaft, which police say is ready 2km (1.2 miles) deep.

The court docket has given an period in-between ruling, pointing out that meals and different necessities might be brought to the miners.

Ndumiso works at a unique shaft on the mine, and surfaced closing month, sooner than the present stand-off.

He’s now ready to look how the placement unfolds, sooner than deciding whether or not to go back.

The stand-off follows a central authority resolution to crack down on an trade that has spiralled out of keep watch over, with mafia-like gangs operating it.

“The rustic has been grappling with the scourge of unlawful mining for a few years, and mining communities bore the brunt of peripheral felony actions corresponding to rape, robbing and injury to public infrastructure, amongst others,” stated Mikateko Mahlaule, chairman of the parliamentary committee on mineral sources.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa stated the mine was once a “crime scene”, however police have been negotiating with the miners to finish the stand-off, slightly than taking place to arrest them.

“Legislation-enforcement government have data that one of the vital miners is also closely armed. It’s well-established that unlawful miners are recruited by way of felony gangs and shape a part of wider organised crime syndicates,” he added.

Ndumiso was once amongst loads of hundreds of staff – each locals and nationals of neighbouring states like Lesotho – who’ve been retrenched as South Africa’s mining trade has long gone into decline during the last 3 a long time. Many of those have long gone directly to grow to be “zama zamas” on the deserted mines.

South Africa-based Benchmark Basis researcher David van Wyk, who has studied the trade, stated there have been about 6,000 deserted mines within the nation.

“Whilst they aren’t successful for large-scale business mining, they’re successful for small-scaling mining,” he informed the BBC Focal point on Africa podcast.

Ndumiso stated he used to paintings as a drill operator, incomes lower than $220 (£175) a month, for a gold-mining corporate till he was once laid off in 1996.

After suffering for the following two decades to discover a full-time task as a result of South Africa’s crushingly top unemployment fee, he stated he made up our minds to grow to be an unlawful miner.

There are tens of hundreds of unlawful miners in South Africa, with Mr Van Wyk pronouncing they quantity about 36,000 on my own in Gauteng province – the rustic’s financial heartland, the place gold was once first found out within the nineteenth Century.

“Zama zamas will steadily spend months underground with out surfacing and rely closely on out of doors make stronger for meals and different must haves. It’s hard and threatening paintings,” stated a record by way of marketing campaign crew World Initiative Towards Transnational Organised Crime.

“Some raise pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic guns to offer protection to themselves from rival gangs of miners,” it added.

Ndumiso informed the BBC that he did personal a pistol, however he additionally paid his gang a per month “coverage commission” of about $8.

Its closely armed guards fend off threats, particularly from Lesotho gangs reputed to have extra deadly firepower, he stated.

Below the 24-hour coverage of the crowd, Ndumiso stated he used dynamite for rock-blasting and rudimentary gear corresponding to a select awl, spade and chisel to seek out gold.

Maximum of what he reveals he provides to the crowd chief, who can pay him at least $1,100 each and every two weeks. He stated he was once ready to stay some gold, which he sells at the black marketplace to most sensible up his source of revenue.

He was once some of the lucky miners to have such an association, he stated – explaining that others have been abducted and brought to the shaft to paintings like slave labourers, receiving no cost or gold.

Ndumiso stated he usually stayed underground for approximately 3 months at a time, after which got here up for 2 to 4 weeks to spend time along with his circle of relatives and promote his gold, sooner than going again into the deep pits.

“I sit up for slumbering on my mattress and consuming home-cooked foods. Inhaling contemporary air is an amazingly robust feeling.”

Ndumiso does now not pop out extra steadily in case he loses his digging spot, however after 3 months it will get an excessive amount of to stay underground.

He recalled that when when he reached the outside: “I used to be so blinded by way of the daylight that I believed I had long gone blind.”

His pores and skin had additionally grow to be so light that his spouse took him for a clinical check-up: “I used to be fair with the physician about the place I lived. He didn’t say the rest, and simply handled me. He gave me nutrients.”

Above floor Ndumiso does now not simply loosen up. He additionally works with different unlawful miners as ore-bearing rocks introduced up from beneath are blasted and beaten into wonderful powder.

That is then “washed” by way of his crew at a makeshift plant to split the gold the use of bad chemical compounds like mercury and sodium cyanide.

Ndumiso stated he then sells his proportion of the gold – one gram for $55, lower than the legitimate value of about $77.

He stated he has a ready-made purchaser, whom he contacts by way of WhatsApp.

“The primary time I met him I didn’t consider him so I informed him to fulfill me within the vehicle park of a police station. I knew I’d be secure there.

“Now we meet in any vehicle park. We now have a scale. We weigh the gold at the spot. I then hand it to over to him, and he can pay me in money,” he stated, declaring that he walks away with between $3,800 and $5,500.

He will get this quantity each and every 3 months, that means his reasonable annual source of revenue is between $15,500 and $22,000 – excess of the $2,700 he earned as a legally hired miner.

Ndumiso stated the crowd leaders earned way more, however he didn’t know the way a lot.

As for the patron of his gold, Ndumiso stated he didn’t know the rest about him, with the exception of that he was once a white guy in an unlawful trade that comes to other folks of various races and categories.

This makes it tricky to clamp down at the felony networks, with Mr Van Wyk pronouncing the federal government was once focused on miners – however now not the “kingpins residing within the leafy suburbs of Johannesburg and Cape The town”.

Mr Ramaphosa stated that unlawful mining was once costing “our financial system billions of rands in misplaced export source of revenue, royalties and taxes”, and the federal government would proceed to paintings with mining corporations “to make sure they take duty for rehabilitating or remaining mines which are not operational”.

Mr Van Wyk informed the BBC Focal point on Africa podcast that the federal government would irritate South Africa’s financial disaster if it clamped down at the “zama zamas”.

“There will have to be a coverage to decriminalise their operations, to higher organise them and to control them,” he added.

When Ndumiso is going again underground to paintings, he’s taking with him cartons of canned meals to steer clear of paying the exorbitant costs on the “markets” that exist there.

With the exception of meals, basic things – like cigarettes, torches, batteries – and mining gear have been offered there, he stated.

This implies {that a} group – or a small the city – had advanced underground through the years, with Ndumiso pronouncing there was once even a crimson gentle district, with intercourse staff introduced underground by way of the gangs.

Ndumiso stated the mine the place he labored was once made up of a number of ranges, and a labyrinth of tunnels that hooked up to one another.

“They’re like highways, with indicators painted to present instructions to other puts and ranges – like the extent that we use as the bathroom, or the extent that we name the zama-zama graveyard,” he stated.

“Some are killed by way of rival gang participants; others die all through rockfalls and are beaten by way of huge boulders. I misplaced a chum after he was once robbed of his gold and shot within the head.”

Even supposing lifestyles underground is perilous, this is a possibility that hundreds like Ndumiso are keen to take, as they are saying the opposite is to reside and die deficient in a country the place the unemployment fee stands at greater than 30%.