Zimbabweans trapped in illegal Zama Zama gold mines in South Africa
The debt bondage facing foreigners
When Thabo left Lesotho last year, he thought he was going to a good job in South Africa. After all, an old school friend working in Rustenburg had recruited him, promising decent pay.
He was sent R1,000 and picked up in a fancy car from his home at Motete in the Butha-Buthe district. Little did he know there was a much higher price to pay.
“The man who drove us was so nice; he even stopped at the mall and bought us clothes and food,” Thabo recalled. “It felt like a dream — until we woke to a nightmare.”
The driver had taken Thabo to Mandleni informal settlement, a notorious base for illegal mining on the East Rand, where he was handed over to a miner whom he knows only as Victor
His passport was immediately taken for “safekeeping”, and he was told he owed R6,000 for his journey, his work clothes, accommodation and the equipment he would use as a miner.
Months later, in August, he was still working long shifts underground, breaking rocks for Victor and his other handlers.
“I asked if I could go home. My team leader told me I had to first pay off my debts. He beat me a month ago after my shift and did not pay me for three weeks.”
He agreed to be interviewed in the dirt-floored shack where he sleeps on the floor with four other miners.
A few weeks after his arrival, Thabo realised he was trapped in a cycle of debt bondage and forced labour. He tried to escape but was caught and raped by a crew of zama zamas, under Victor’s orders.
A year later, he is still in Mandleni, living in constant fear.
Mandleni is located on Heidelberg Road near Wattville township south of Benoni. The residents have grown to accept the illegal miners, but many don’t know the extent to which young men and women are trapped in various forms of “debt bondage”.
This is when someone is forced to work to repay a “debt” which is structured so they cannot ever realistically settle it. It is the most common form of forced labour around the world, according to the International Labour Organisation
Thabo’s is not an isolated case. The Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP) spoke to several young people who reported being trapped in a cycle of debt and backbreaking work.
During their two-month investigation it became clear the modus operandi was designed to trap young adults and teenagers from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in illegal mining operations in Mandleni. By paying for their transport and housing, the scammers “bond” the migrants to the illegal operation and its owners.
Protection fees, fuel fees and food are used to control the workers. – SA AJP