Millions of ounces of unmined gold are still believed to lie below the surface, fuelling a booming β but frequently deadly β illicit industry. Thu 24 Oct A s he prepares to descend an abandoned mineshaft in the Johannesburg suburb of Roodepoort, Fix, a sinewy informal goldminer from Lesotho, recounts stories of subterranean gun battles and unearthing the scattered bones of those who came before him.
Millions of ounces of unmined gold are still believed to lie beneath its surface, fuelling a booming but frequently deadly illicit goldmining industry. Sometimes, he says, he can go down a shaft in the far west of the city and emerge bleary eyed on its opposite edge a week later. Twenty-five years after the fall of the brutal apartheid regime, South Africa's cities remain hugely divided, both economically and racially. This week Guardian Cities explores the incredible changes taking place, the challenges faced and the projects that bring hope.
Africa correspondent Jason Burke reports from the Flats, where violence and death are endemic just miles from Cape Town's spectacular beaches and trendy cafes. We hear from Port Elizabeth, where one architect is using recycled materials to transform his city, and Durban, where a surf school is changing the lives of vulnerable children. In some mining areas surrounding Johannesburg, informal miners have been rumoured to spend as long as six months underground, sustained by makeshift underground villages where basic foodstuffs, airtime, alcohol and even sex are sold at dramatically inflated prices.
Many more are likely still unaccounted for underground. According to a report by the South African Human Rights Commission, there are as many as 30, zama zamas operating across South Africa, most of them concentrated in and around Johannesburg. Today, there are an estimated 6, abandoned or disused mines across South Africa, the vast majority of them found along the so-called Golden Arc β the elliptical basin that spans the breadth of Johannesburg and continues into the neighbouring Free State and North West provinces.
Most of these sites have now been taken over by zama zamas and the violent syndicates that control them. Between and , Gauteng province, which comprises Johannesburg, also added almost a million new inhabitants through net migration from other South African provinces.
