Question

write a 300-400 summary on this passage:

Illegal Mining

Who are the illegal miners in South Africa? They are often illegal immigrants, largely from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho or other central and southern African nations that come to South Africa in search of striking it rich, or at the very least, making a decent living. In South Africa, the illegal miners are often referred to as the Zama Zamas, a term that means “trying your luck”. These immigrants come to South Africa to earn a living with the hopes of remitting earnings back to their families in their respective homelands.

Some illegal miners are South Africans who view illegal mining as a dangerous, albeit potentially remunerative activity. Some of the South African illegal miners can be described as “legal miners by day, yet illegal by night.” In other words, they might be gainfully employed by a mining firm and work legitimately for the company during the day shift, but re-enter the mine when evening falls to bolster their income. These individuals are particularly useful to a group of illegal miners given their familiarity with the mine and its risks. It is also quite possible that the South African illegal miners are unemployed mineworkers that were previously laid off by the mining companies when they were forced to retrench as a result of increasing global competitive pressures. Alternatively, illegal mineworkers may simply be young, black South Africans (without any previous mining experience) seeking a living in a nation that has struggled to reach its potential in the post-apartheid era and where one out of four South Africans is unemployed.

Regardless of the nationality or the motivations that landed the illegal miners in this role, one thing is certain: it is not an easy life. Illegal miners may break into the very mines they work in by day, or often work in abandoned or disused mine shafts. (Disused mine shafts are mines that legitimate mining companies are in the process of closing down because they are no longer economically viable, but where the firms are awaiting final permits issued by the government to “officially” close the mine. Mining companies complain that all too frequently, the government-issued permit is delayed for months, thus exacerbating the illegal mining problem.)

The miners often align themselves with a group of miners united in their illegal search of striking it rich. There is power in numbers. Being part of a group offers protection from rival factions of illegal mine workers, and fosters some level of camaraderie as the freelance miners ‘watch over’ one another. Since illegal miners are typically not employees of any business, nor members of any union and often times, not even citizens of South Africa, it can be said, that if it wasn’t for these informal groups, the miners would have no one else with even an ounce of their interests in mind. The groups generally work for a leader (a “kingpin”) who organizes runners to bring food and drinks to them, while the “miners” stay underground, some times for days – and even months - at a time. Illegal miners often run the risk of falling prey to other serious crimes. Illegal miners’ lives have been threatened - and lost - when they have refused to relinquish the deftly collected gold particles in their possession to thieves. Deaths, however, often go unreported, and as a result, there is no way of knowing how many illegal miners lose their lives each year. Only when there is a more visible event – such as a fire that went out of control in an abandoned mineshaft in 2009, killing 76 people, is a light shed on the plight and the working conditions of these workers.

Answer 1

The passage discusses illegal mining in South Africa. Most of the illegal miners in South Africa are from other countries who want to have a decent life here, who are mostly called Zama which means trying your luck. Most of these illegal miners who are well knowledgeable about the mines and the risks associated with it are employed in the mining companies but does illegal mining to earn extra income. One of the major reasons shown in the passage of why these illegal miners exist is that most of the illegal miners were laid off by the mining companies as a result of global competitiveness. Along with the Zamas, the illegal miners include South African youth who are unemployed who don't have prior experience in this field. Despite the nationality of the miners, there is a certain risk and danger attached to it. The illegal miners work in groups and make use of the disused mine shafts. By being in a part of a larger group provides them protection from rivals, and it's because of these groups that illegal miners have an interest in this mining. The passage mentions that illegal mining leads to serious crimes and is a threat to life as well if they don't submit the collected mined possessions. Most of the deaths are unreported and hence the statistics of how many illegal miners lost their life is impossible to know. From the passage, we can understand that the main problem for this illegal mining is the lack of employment. By providing more jobs in the mining companies or other firms can reduce the number of illegal miners. More efficiency of law and order has to be adopted to remove the informal groups that exploits the youth that are in bad need of a job.