Keypoints:
- Roads and power infrastructure are under threat
- Armed zama zamas exploit abandoned mine shafts
- Johannesburg faces mounting underground instability
JOHANNESBURG is confronting a dangerous new phase of its mining legacy as illegal underground operations damage roads, destabilise neighbourhoods and threaten electricity infrastructure across South Africa’s economic hub.
The problem has grown beyond crime and policing into an urban infrastructure crisis. AFP reporting from Johannesburg and surrounding mining communities shows how informal miners are exploiting abandoned shafts and digging beneath roads, businesses and neighbourhoods, while competition between armed gangs fuels crime.
Roads crack as miners dig below
On Wemmer Pan Road, sections of what was once a busy route have collapsed. Elsewhere, cracks and sinkholes have appeared as underground blasting continues beneath parts of the city.
Residents in Roodepoort, northwest of central Johannesburg, told AFP that tremors from blasting had shaken buildings before the security situation deteriorated further. Voneen Trompeter, 45, said residents had initially felt their flats shake from underground activity but were now also dealing with shootouts in the area.
In Denver, near central Johannesburg, a businessman showed AFP a large hole about 100 metres from his factory where he said illegal miners regularly emerged. Gauteng provincial legislator Michael Sun said illegal miners were also stealing electricity cables, damaging water pipes and digging up roads.
The deterioration adds another layer to Johannesburg’s existing infrastructure pressures. Africa Briefing has previously examined how the city’s debt, electricity disputes and deteriorating public services have raised concerns about the management of one of Africa’s most important commercial centres.
Power network comes under pressure
Johannesburg’s electricity infrastructure is increasingly exposed to what is happening underground.
City Power spokesman Isaac Mangena said excavations had compromised ground stability, putting substations, transformers, pylons and transmission towers at risk. In some areas, he said, infrastructure had already begun sinking as illegal mining continued to expand below the surface.
The threat reaches beyond damaged roads. Electricity installations, businesses and residential buildings can all become vulnerable when the ground supporting them is repeatedly excavated or disturbed.
Johannesburg’s geography makes the problem particularly difficult. The city was born from the gold rush of the 1880s, and hundreds of abandoned shafts remain along the main gold reef. Some are being reworked by informal miners, while others contain acidic water that mining experts say can contribute to sinkholes.
Mining expert David van Wyk told AFP that infrastructure damage was likely to worsen. He estimates that more than 34,000 irregular miners operate across South Africa.
An armed economy below ground
The miners are widely known as zama zamas, a Zulu expression meaning ‘those who try’. Many are impoverished men from countries across the region who may spend days underground extracting residual gold and other minerals from old workings.
But the informal economy surrounding the shafts has also become increasingly violent.
In a mining settlement outside Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, zama zamas had taken over an abandoned school and restricted access to the area. Local councillor Moiketsi Ntilane described families living in fear of heavily armed miners who had effectively imposed their authority on the community.
The financial rewards help explain why informal mining persists despite the dangers. One 27-year-old miner from Lesotho said he could earn as much as 15,000 rand (about $930) on a good day and more than 100,000 rand in a month. He said the work supported his family.
The trade combines economic desperation, migration, abandoned mining infrastructure and violent competition over valuable deposits. Across Africa, governments are also reassessing how mineral resources are governed, with tougher mining licence enforcement and greater state control becoming increasingly prominent across the sector.
Government turns to soldiers
President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed troops across Gauteng in March to reinforce police operations against crime and illegal mining.
In Bapong, in North West province, regular police and military patrols are now keeping zama zamas at bay, but residents remain surrounded by physical damage.
Homes stand close to massive pits excavated by miners seeking access to chrome deposits. Resident Sarah Rakgwanhla told AFP that some holes had filled with water and posed a danger to children walking to school or shops. She appealed for authorities to seal them.
The situation in Bapong shows that the consequences extend beyond Johannesburg. Mining communities elsewhere face abandoned workings, environmental degradation and infrastructure damage that may remain long after illegal operators have moved on.
Gold legacy becomes an urban threat
Johannesburg’s prosperity was built on what lay beneath its ground. More than a century later, that same mining landscape is creating a different challenge for the city above it.
The crisis raises difficult questions over abandoned mine rehabilitation, damaged infrastructure, hazardous mine dumps, organised criminal activity and the social conditions sustaining informal mining.
It also comes as South Africa seeks to modernise its broader mining sector and strengthen investment, licensing and mineral governance as competition for African mineral resources intensifies globally.
For Johannesburg, the warning signs are already visible: fractured roads, unstable ground, threatened electricity installations and buildings exposed to repeated underground blasting.
Police and soldiers may disrupt individual operations, but enforcement alone cannot reverse decades of abandoned mining infrastructure or repair ground already damaged beneath communities.
If illegal excavation continues to spread through old workings, its cost will increasingly be measured not simply in lost mineral revenue or crime statistics, but in the physical stability of South Africa’s economic hub.
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