RUSTENBURG, NORTH WEST — Fourteen mine workers lost their lives in a rockfall in Rustenburg this week, a tragedy that experts say exposes the deadly shortcomings of South Africa’s approach to illegal mining. As the country’s Justice Minister unveils sweeping new legislation designed to impose jail sentences on those operating outside the law, a leading civil society researcher warns the crackdown will prove ineffective unless the government confronts the structural drivers pushing desperate communities underground.
David van Wyk, senior researcher at the Bench-Marks Foundation, says the administration’s decision to finally introduce a regulatory framework for small-scale and artisanal mining is a positive development. However, he cautions that the bill contains deep flaws that could worsen the very crisis it seeks to resolve.
Ghost Workers, Ghost Mines
Van Wyk’s concern is rooted in fresh fieldwork. The Bench-Marks Foundation recently completed a study in the Rustenburg area. Through focus group discussions with active and former mine workers, researchers documented what van Wyk describes as “many ghost operations happening underground” at any given moment.
The root of the problem, he explains, is the mining industry’s two-decade-old dependence on subcontracting and labor brokering. Because large operators increasingly rely on brokered labor—which is cheaper than formalized, unionized employment—shaft-level supervisors, mine captains, and shift bosses have lost the ability to verify who belongs underground. Distinguishing a legitimate employee from a subcontractor’s worker, or from someone mining illegally, has become practically impossible.
Van Wyk notes that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), NUMSA, and AMU have raised alarms about this overreliance on labor brokers for roughly 20 to 25 years, yet the practice persists. Until it is curtailed, he argues, enforcement of the new criminal penalties will remain unworkable.
A Skills Vacuum Created by History and Law
One of the most contentious provisions in the draft legislation is its treatment of foreign labor. Under the proposed rules, South African nationals may obtain artisanal mining permits, but foreign workers are barred from participating. Meanwhile, large-scale mining houses—including Anglo American and Sibanye—retain the right to recruit labor from traditional sending regions such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, and the Eastern Cape.
Van Wyk calls this a dangerous double standard. Historically, communities in the North West, Free State, and Mpumalanga were excluded from technical mining roles and relegated to manual labor. As a result, generations of local residents never acquired the specialized knowledge needed to locate and safely extract minerals. Denying small-scale operators access to experienced foreign workers, he says, removes a critical layer of practical expertise that could prevent fatalities like the recent Sefi shaft disaster.
He draws a direct line between this skills gap and the rockfall that killed 14 workers. Without structured knowledge-sharing between experienced miners and newcomers, van Wyk predicts further tragedies are inevitable.
Retrenchments Fuel the Underground Economy
The human context surrounding the Rustenburg operations is equally stark. Over the past two years, the Karee shaft and surrounding operations have undergone waves of retrenchments, shedding thousands of jobs. Displaced workers, many now living in Nkanini and other informal settlements, possess few marketable skills beyond underground labor. For many, descending into abandoned or active shafts to search for minerals becomes the only available livelihood.
Van Wyk links this cycle directly to the current mine closure regime. Under existing rules, companies are required to rehabilitate and seal operations only at the end of a mine’s full lifespan—a timeline that can stretch 20 years or more into the future. In practice, individual shafts and tunnels are often decommissioned long before that final closure date, left open and accessible. He urges the Department of Mineral Resources to treat closure as a continuous obligation, ensuring disused shafts are sealed promptly rather than waiting for an entire operation to wind down.
Tailings: The Resource Artisanal Miners Cannot Touch
Even where the new legislation does grant artisanal miners a legal pathway, practical barriers remain severe. Permit holders are restricted to surface-level remining of tailings dumps; underground work is prohibited, and operational size is capped.
The complication, van Wyk explains, is that the most viable tailings deposits have already been allocated to large corporations. Companies hold existing licenses covering vast stretches of tailings across the country. He questions where small-scale operators are realistically expected to work when the resource base they are permitted to access has already been spoken for.
Van Wyk also flags a regulatory anomaly at Jagersfontein, where diamonds are being extracted from mine tailings under what the Department of Mineral Resources classifies as a water affairs operation rather than a mining activity. In his view, this classification effectively shields a large-scale extraction effort from standard mining oversight, raising further questions about fairness in the sector.
Consultation, Public Comment, and What Comes Next
The Bench-Marks Foundation, together with the National Association of Artisanal Miners, the Legal Resources Centre, and allied civil society organizations, submitted detailed objections during the draft consultation phase. Van Wyk says many of those concerns remain unaddressed in the version now before the public.
The public comment window on the legislation is expected to close later this month. Stakeholders are watching closely to determine whether Parliament will incorporate the structural reforms—curbing labor brokering, opening tailings access, mandating ongoing shaft rehabilitation, and allowing skills-sharing across borders—that researchers say are essential to actually dismantling the illegal mining economy.
Without those changes, van Wyk warns, the new penalties risk criminalizing the symptoms of a broken system while leaving its architecture firmly intact.
