Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the North West, Lieutenant General Arthur Adams, has confirmed the deaths of 14 illegal miners at the Nkaneng dumping site in Bojanala Sub-District 2 (Rustenburg). The incident was reported to the police at approximately 21h00 on Monday, 10 August 2026.Preliminary information indicates that a group of suspected zama-zamas were conducting an illegal mining operation at a dumping site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A permit had been granted to a company to extract PGM (Platinum Group Metals) in the area. The group of zama-zamas were allegedly manually digging in an excavated area when the walls caved in, trapping the illegal miners inside.Nearby mine security was informed of the incident by a fellow zama-zama who, after reporting the incident, disappeared. Police were subsequently called to the scene, where the deceased illegal miners were discovered. Most of the deceased are understood to be Basotho nationals.Eight people who were rescued have been admitted to a local hospital, where they are receiving medical treatment. Three were discharged shortly after receiving treatment and were detained for contravention of the Immigration Act. The remaining five are still being kept in hospital under police guard.Authorities are continuing to assess the situation amid concerns that an unknown number of illegal miners may still be trapped underground. The immediate priority remains the safe rescue and recovery of anyone who may still be underground, with all relevant resources being mobilised to support the operation.An inquest investigation has also been opened to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.Lieutenant General Arthur Adams described the incident as a tragic reminder of the dangers associated with illegal mining. Illegal mining takes place outside regulated mining environments, often without proper safety measures, oversight or lawful working conditions. He warned that people entering abandoned or active underground areas expose themselves to significant risks, including rockfalls and other life-threatening hazards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the North West, Lieutenant General<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-banner"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","chromenews-featured":"","chromenews-large":"","chromenews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"Masego Senosi","author_link":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/author\/msenosi\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1081\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestunlocked.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}