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South Africa’s illegal miners, the zama zamas, have emerged as an intractable security issue in mining communities, and South Africa’s military is preparing to take it on.

Sources familiar with the South African National Defence Force have said that a unit of approximately one hundred soldiers – drawn from special forces, signallers, medical personnel, and engineers – is being assembled to specialise in tunnel warfare. They have reportedly been undergoing a mine-orientation course.

Operations demand not only bespoke training but specialist equipment. This includes low-light visual equipment for and communications systems able to function in that environment.

It is unknown how many zama zamas operate in South Africa, but a 2019 report by the Institute for Security Studies estimated their number at 30 000. Their activities are a nuisance to surrounding communities, and can cause lasting damage through damage to earth and rock structures. They are often linked to larger criminal syndicates and are frequently armed and proficient in the use of their weapons, and accustomed to the tunnels in which they may spend months at a time. The illicit mining industry makes up a core component of the broader illicit economy, on which this newspaper has written in detail.

Past efforts to deal with the problem have been of mixed effectiveness, largely because of the difficulty of entering and operating in the tunnels. In 2024, a highly publicised case arose in Stilfontein in the North West, where several thousand were believed to inhabit a disused mine. The authorities were reluctant to send officers in and attempted controversially to place the complex under siege – in the words of Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, to “smoke them out”.

The military was deployed in March as part of Operation Prosper to assist the police in combatting zama zamas. However, it lacked proper orientation for doing so. Two soldiers died on 17 July, having fallen into a shaft while pursuing zama zamas on a mine near Johannesburg.

Underground operations have been a feature of warfare for centuries. Tunnelling and counter-tunnelling was recorded in the Middle Ages during sieges. In the 19th and 20th centuries, tunnels were used to attack enemy trenches. Typically, soldiers with mining backgrounds would be chosen for these tasks.

In the 20th century, underground complexes served to provide protection from heavy weapons, and to present enemies with formidable physical and psychological barriers. During the Vietnam War, tunnel complexes were used by the communist forces as part of their insurgent strategy. To counter this, the United States (US) and its allies formed speciality units, known colloquially as “tunnel rats”, to operate in tunnels. Similar strategies were employed by insurgents in Afghanistan – first against the Soviets and later against the US-led coalition – requiring similar responses.

In recent years, the issue has regained global attention in the conflict in Gaza, where Hamas constructed enormous networks of complex tunnel systems, built at the expense of resources that might have been used for civilian development. These provided redoubts for its fighters, smuggling routes, storehouses for its equipment, in some instances as offensive portals into Israel, and were intended to provide an environmental advantage against penetrating Israeli forces. Israel has invested in an elite force within its combat engineering corps. This is named Sayeret Samur (Samur is translated as “weasel”).

Egypt regards tunnelling from Gaza into its territory as a risk, and has responded by flooding those it has identified with sewage, and demolishing structures that conceal entrances.