Lutho Makheyi, while strolling around the ramshackle shacks of her home’s informal community west of Johannesburg, points out areas where unpaved streets are punctured by trenches filled with soiled rainwater.
These are the wounds caused by illicit gold mining, which she holds accountable for the high rates of violent crime that plague South Africa in the run-up to the most competitive general election in decades.
“You never know when a gunshot can go off or if you’re going to be raped,” Makheyi, 21, said, adding that she hoped the vote would bring about change.
“You never know if you’ll be alive tomorrow.”
Slag heaps, shafts, and deep pits left by several generations of miners, whose arrival during a gold rush in the 1880s gave rise to the city of Johannesburg, can be found all throughout the Johannesburg region.
Numerous unregistered miners, referred to as “zama zamas” (meaning “those who try” in Zulu) work in the region, harvesting, repurposing, and reusing surplus gold ore.
Gangs that occasionally engage in power struggles frequently control access to the abandoned mines.
One such deposit is situated atop Zamimpilo, the informal settlement of Makheyi.
