Organized Crime and Corruption Fueling Africa’s Illegal Mining Crisis

Uncontrolled gangs largely ignored by police until a recent brutal crime shocked a nation

Illegal miners sift through mounds of disused stone to find gold dust, which is then sold to buyers who process it further to extract the gold particles and bind them together. File photo from 2015. John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—In the shadow of a six-story-high mine dump, excavated sand gleaming white in the sun, a young man, sweat streaming down his bare chest, runs his fingers through a bucket of stony dirt he’s just pulled from the depths of a dark shaft.

David Mokushane (not his real name) is a zama zama, an illegal miner, on the western outskirts of Johannesburg.