A presentation by College of South Africa (Unisa) Centre of Excellence: Adaptation and Resilience postdoctoral analysis fellow Dr Kennedy Manduna has challenged dominant narratives round unlawful mining, arguing that so referred to as “zama zamas” occupy a twin place as each victims and perpetrators of violence inside South Africa’s illicit mining financial system.
On April 23, Manduna delivered a presentation, titled “Zama zamas as each victims and perpetrators of violence in mining communities” on the Wits Mining Institute, in Johannesburg.
Through the presentation, Manduna referred to as for a extra nuanced and structurally knowledgeable understanding of this phenomenon and in addition warned towards an oversimplified stigmatisation that hid deeper socioeconomic drivers.
He defined that the dominant public discourse on unlawful mining tends to label unlawful miners right into a single class of criminality and argued that this framing ignores the circumstances that push people into casual and unlawful extraction actions.
“Zama zamas are typically represented as criminals, which in some ways is true. However then, what about them additionally being victims? They’re the victims of State, group and gender violence, and so they need to act on the subject of preventing for survival,” Manduna stated.
He argued that zama zamas exist inside a “victim-perpetrator” spectrum, formed by structural unemployment, migration pressures, deindustrialisation and the collapse of formal mining employment pathways, whereas empahsising that these conditons weren’t conditional however systemic, and tied to broader political financial system dynamics throughout Southern Africa.
Manduna additionally famous the intersection between unlawful mining, unlawful migration and organised crime and cautioned towards treating these linkages as purely legislation enforcement points, including that the persistence of unlawful mining displays deeper governance failures and uneven growth.
“Enforcement-heavy responses, together with militarised policing operations, have accomplished little to handle the foundation causes of the unlawful mining phenomenon. Why are we preventing it in methods which might be tough to interrupt with out addressing the system itself?” Manduna requested.
One other key theme of his presentation targeted on the contested framing of zama zamas throughout ideological traces, the place Manduna outlined how conservative views are inclined to outline them strictly as unlawful miners weakening the financial system, whereas extra progressive approaches view them as casual staff working inside survival-driven economies.
He says these contestations have produced fragmented coverage responses and contradictory narratives, usually fuelling xenophobic and anti-migrant sentiment, particularly on condition that a good portion of these arrested in unlawful mining operations are undocumented migrants from neighbouring nations.
Additional, Manduna additionally unpacked the broader worth chain underpinning unlawful mining, declaring that focusing solely on particular person miners ignores the position of intermediaries, consumers and illicit world markets, who all profit from the commerce of illicitly mined minerals.
By shifting consideration to those networks, policymakers might higher perceive the systemic nature of the issue somewhat than isolating its most seen and weak individuals, he argued.
Manduna additionally famous that State responses have, in some situations, contributed to the dehumanisation of zama zamas, successfully stripping them of any political and social recognition, and he hyperlinks this to the broader world traits of authoritarian governance and exclusionary politics.
“When you dehumanise somebody to that extent, it means no safety. Such approaches danger entrenching cycles of violence somewhat than resolving them,” he stated.
On the similar time, Manduna didn’t downplay the violence related to the unlawful mining sector, describing these areas as distinct from different casual economies owing to their publicity to excessive danger, coercion and exploitation.
He added that the notion of “agentic victimhood” underscored the complexity of this sector, the place people could also be experiencing exploitation whereas taking part in violent or legal actions.
To handle these challenges, Manduna has referred to as for differentiated coverage responses that distinguish between survival-driven participation and organised legal exercise.
“Formalisation and regulation might play a job, however provided that carried out in methods which might be inclusive and attentive to the realities of these working throughout the sector.
“Not solely do we have to goal criminals, however we have to differentiate between unlawful actions and survival pathways on this operation,” Manduna says.
His presentation varieties a part of ongoing interdisciplinary engagements aimed toward broadening coverage debates round mining, livelihoods and governance in South Africa and the broader area.
