In a News24 essay, Hamilton Wende explores the lives of zama zamas trapped between poverty, danger and hope. Rather than reducing illegal miners to headlines, he reveals their humanity, dreams and struggles for a better future. The essay examines the complex social and economic realities driving illegal mining and questions simplistic political responses to the crisis.
“My enemies try to hunt me down. They have found me sometimes, but they have failed to shoot me. I am fortunate.”
This is the voice of Duma who works as a zama zama near New Canada. He has been working as an informal miner for years and his life has become inextricably tied up in the criminal gangs that haunt our broken, derelict mines – once the source of so much wealth for this country. Duma sees no way out of this outlaw life. “It is only god who knows how this will end.”
To dismiss him as nothing more than a violent gangster is to fail to comprehend the layers of powerlessness and poverty that define his life. Back in Maseru I visit his sister Madieketseng and his nieces Lieketseng, a teenager, and tiny Naledi, a toddler. Madieketseng hoes a small patch of mielies in front of her house. She tells me how much she loves Duma and how they depend on him for money to pay for food, for clothes and for Lieketseng’s studies. The harvest of mielies from her tiny garden will never be enough for those things.
“I worry about him,” Madieketseng says. “Sometimes we get news that one of them has been found dead in the shafts.”
But Duma agonizes over them too. “I am a member of a gang, and those enemies have a tendency of killing our families who are not involved in this.” This is no gangland bravado; it is fear that has no outlet, other than the bitter, fragile hope of survival despite the odds. “There is,” he says, “no protection I can offer them.”
hamilton wende
Hamilton Wende is an author, journalist and TV producer. He has worked all over the world, covering historical events and some 17 different wars and conflicts. He is based in Johannesburg and travels from there. He has worked for a number of international networks including BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. He has also reported on events in South Africa for the last three decades. He has published many articles in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. He is the author of 9 books. House of War, Only the Dead and The King’s Shilling are thrillers based on his travels around the world as a journalist. His latest book Red Air is based on his experiences filming with the US Marines in Afghanistan. He has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from Wits University.
He is also the author of the popular children’s books: Arabella, the Moon and the Magic Mongongo Nut and Arabella the Secret King and the Amulet from Timbuktu which are set in Johannesburg and Knysna. He is working on the third volume in the series.
