Zama zamas are just a continuation of earlier generations of those who came to dig for gold.
A young boy fetches coal from a defunct mine in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, in an operation run by illegal miners. Picture: GALLO IMAGES
“Many men come as young boys and are recruited to SA by force. They’ve been made to understand they’ll be making money in SA, working on a mine.” Van der Watt spoke of human traffickers coming from Mozambique in minibus taxis laden with dozens of young men, who believed they were off to work on the gold mines of the fabled City of Gold.
Maybe their grandfathers did not live in abandoned tunnels for months at a time or die in underground gunfights with rival gangs. But this story of exploitation is hardly different from that of young men travelling in padlocked freight cars or crammed into the bellies of seatless transport aircraft hired by the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association to bring cheap labour from neighbouring countries.
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