In conjunction with about 600 alternative males, Ndumiso lives and works in a petite gang-controlled “town” – entire with markets and a crimson bright district – that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.

Ndumiso instructed the BBC that then being laid off through a obese mining company, he made up our minds to connect the group in its underground international to turn into 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 twilight marketplace for a profusion benefit, incomes greater than he ever did prior to – despite the fact that the hazards now are some distance upper.

“The underground life is ruthless. Many do not make it out alive,” stated the 52-year-old, who told to the BBC on status that his actual title used to be now not worn as he feared reprisals.

“In one level of the shaft there are bodies and skeletons. We call that the zama-zama graveyard,” he stated.

However for individuals who live to tell the tale, like Ndumiso, the process will also be profitable.

Time he sleeps on sandbags then back-breaking days underground, his community lives in a space he has purchased in a township of the primary town, Johannesburg.

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

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

“I have to provide for my wife and children and this is the only way I know,” he stated, including that he most well-liked to toil underground in lieu than including to the prime crime charge through changing into a car-hijacker or robber, then spending a few years looking for felony paintings.

His stream process is at a mine within the petite the town of Stilfontein, round 90 miles (145km) south-west of Johannesburg, which is on the centre of world consideration then a central authority minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, promised to “smoke out” the loads of miners who have been underground there, with the safety forces combating meals and aqua from being despatched unwell.

“Criminals are not to be helped. Criminals are to be persecuted,” Ntshavheni stated.

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

The court docket has given an period in-between ruling, declaring that meals and alternative necessities may well be dropped at the miners.

Ndumiso works at a unique shaft on the mine, and surfaced utmost while, prior to the stream stand-off.

He’s now ready to peer how the status unfolds, prior to deciding whether or not to go back.

The stand-off follows a central authority choice to fracture unwell on an business that has spiralled out of regulate, with mafia-like gangs operating it.

“The country has been grappling with the scourge of illegal mining for many years, and mining communities bore the brunt of peripheral criminal activities such as rape, robbing and damage to public infrastructure, among others,” stated Mikateko Mahlaule, chairman of the parliamentary committee on mineral sources.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa stated the mine used to be a “crime scene”, however police have been negotiating with the miners to finish the stand-off, in lieu than happening to arrest them.

“Law-enforcement authorities have information that some of the miners may be heavily armed. It is well-established that illegal miners are recruited by criminal gangs and form part of wider organised crime syndicates,” he added.

Ndumiso used to be amongst masses of 1000’s of staff – each locals and nationals of neighbouring states like Lesotho – who’ve been retrenched as South Africa’s mining business has long gone into abate over the utmost 3 a long time. Many of those have long gone directly to turn into “zama zamas” on the isolated mines.

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

“While they are not profitable for large-scale industrial mining, they are profitable for small-scaling mining,” he instructed the BBC Center of attention on Africa podcast.

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

Then suffering for the later twenty years to discover a full-time process as a result of South Africa’s crushingly prime unemployment charge, he stated he made up our minds to turn into an unlawful miner.

There are tens of 1000’s of unlawful miners in South Africa, with Mr Van Wyk announcing they quantity about 36,000 isolated in Gauteng province – the rustic’s financial heartland, the place gold used to be first found out within the nineteenth Century.

“Zama zamas will often spend months underground without surfacing and depend heavily on outside support for food and other necessities. It is arduous and dangerous work,” stated a document through marketing campaign staff International Initiative Towards Transnational Organised Crime.

“Some carry pistols, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons to protect themselves from rival gangs of miners,” it added.

Ndumiso instructed the BBC that he did personal a pistol, however he additionally paid his gang a per 30 days “protection fee” of about $8.

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

Beneath the 24-hour coverage of the group, Ndumiso stated he worn dynamite for rock-blasting and rudimentary gear corresponding to a select awl, spade and chisel to search out gold.

Maximum of what he unearths he provides to the group chief, who will pay him no less than $1,100 each and every two weeks. He stated he used to be in a position to accumulation some gold, which he sells at the twilight marketplace to govern up his source of revenue.

He used to be 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 refuse fee or gold.

Ndumiso stated he most often stayed underground for approximately 3 months at a presen, and later got here up for 2 to 4 weeks to spend presen along with his community and promote his gold, prior to going again into the deep pits.

“I look forward to sleeping on my bed and eating home-cooked meals. Breathing in fresh air is an amazingly powerful feeling.”

Ndumiso does now not pop out extra frequently in case he loses his digging spot, however then 3 months it will get remaining to stay underground.

He recalled that after when he reached the skin: “I was so blinded by the sunlight that I thought I had gone blind.”

His pores and skin had additionally turn into so faded that his spouse took him for a scientific check-up: “I was honest with the doctor about where I lived. He did not say anything, and just treated me. He gave me vitamins.”

Above grassland Ndumiso does now not simply laze. He additionally works with alternative unlawful miners as ore-bearing rocks introduced up from beneath are blasted and beaten into fantastic powder.

That is later “washed” through his staff at a makeshift plant to independent the gold the usage of bad chemical compounds like mercury and sodium cyanide.

Ndumiso stated he later sells his percentage of the gold – one gram for $55, lower than the professional value of about $77.

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

“The first time I met him I did not trust him so I told him to meet me in the car park of a police station. I knew I would be safe there.

“Now we meet in any automobile terrain. We have now a scale. We weigh the gold at the spot. I later hand it to over to him, and he will pay me in money,” he said, pointing out that he walks away with between $3,800 and $5,500.

He gets this amount every three months, meaning his average annual income is between $15,500 and $22,000 – far more than the $2,700 he earned as a legally employed miner.

Ndumiso said the gang leaders earned far more, but he did not know how much.