‘Gun fights and mass graves’ – Inside South Africa’s deadly illegal gold mines

Gun battles, mass graves, and explosions – that’s not a description of a battlefield, but of an illegal gold mine in South Africa. Gold mining propped up the nation’s economy for over a century, and still today countries like the UK trade millions for its gold. But a huge price crash in the late 90s put tens of thousands of miners out of a job. Since then, a literal criminal underworld has risen, operated by illegal miners named the Zama-Zamas, who risk their lives everyday in abandoned mine shafts that could collapse any minute.

Kimon de Greef is a journalist who has investigated all this for The New Yorker. He joins Dipo Faloyin in the Bunker to explain what drives the Zama-Zamas and where their gold goes.

• “Up until the end of apartheid, Gold was the bedrock of South Africa’s economy.” – Kimon de Greef.

• “It’s like something out of the most dystopian science fiction, down there, but it’s real.” – Kimon de Greef.

• “Gold really explains a lot of South Africa’s social history.” – Kimon de Greef.

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Presented by Dipo Faloyin. Written and Produced by: Chris Jones. Audio production: Alex Rees. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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