South African soldiers die chasing illegal miners

Two South African soldiers have died after falling down a mine shaft during an operation targeting illicit mining, a police spokeswoman said.

The deaths are the first military fatalities since President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed troops in March to bolster police operations against crime and illegal mining.

The incident occurred at an abandoned mine west of Johannesburg on Friday as soldiers pursued suspected illegal miners, known locally as "zama zamas", police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe said.

The soldiers fell into an open vertical shaft at the abandoned mine, she said.

‘Courageous soldiers’

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said the incident occurred at about 6:00 am (0400 GMT).

It said efforts to formally identify the soldiers and notify their next of kin were under way.

"The loss of these courageous soldiers is a devastating blow to the security cluster and the nation at large," acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said.

The clandestine artisanal miners, many from neighbouring countries, have become an entrenched presence in the shantytowns that ring Johannesburg and its satellite settlements along the gold reef.

Hundreds of arrests

Driven by unemployment, the zama zamas, which means "those who try" in the Zulu language, descend deep into still gold-bearing shafts abandoned by mining companies or dig out new ones.

The sector has been linked to organised crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities.

Last week, security forces rounded up more than 200 mostly undocumented foreign nationals during a swoop on a gold mine shaft west of Johannesburg.

More than 100 of them were from Lesotho, police said. Mozambicans, Zimbabweans and South Africans were also arrested, and guns and ammunition confiscated.