In South Africa, police have spent weeks besieging an abandoned gold mine west of Johannesburg, waiting to arrest hundreds of illegal miners known locally as zama zamas. The miners are notorious in ...

Illegal mining, driven by zama zamas — illegal or artisanal miners who exploit abandoned or active mines — has become one of the most urgent threats to South Africa’s public safety, national security, ...

The Zamas Hotel (www.zamas.com), a luxury, boutique property in Tulum, has announced a lineup of new packages for guests who want to see Tulum like an insider. (Three-night minimum say required, ...

Are zama zamas simply foreign criminals stealing South African gold, deserving only of being "smoked out"? Or are they dehumanised labourers exploited by mining kingpins under the banner of "illicit ...

The ‘diggings’ a resident found on the banks of Rose Creek. Photo: Alex Henssa It seems no place is safe from the reach of zama zamas. Lowvelder reports that a resident of this historical town ...

This is how locals in the Montrose area describe the zama zamas operating in the picturesque Schoemanskloof Valley – not only because of their illegal mining activities, but also due to the alleged ...

Bracing against the vibrations of the jackhammer, illicit diamond miner Jefferson Ncube bores steadily into the rock face before him, sending chunks of dry stone clattering to the ground and filling ...

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