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newyorker.comThe Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold MinesWhen the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.

Feb 20

When South Africa's gold mines closed down, thousands of men entered the tunnels — the world's deepest — in search of leftover ore, living underground for months or years. My story for

@NewYorker

on zama-zamas & the kingpin who seized control of a city:

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Leaving this platform for a while. Please contact me via my website if needed.

Of local relevance, too: a spate of cocaine busts in South Africa last year emanated from one of these operations

dailymaverick.co.za

ORGANISED CRIME: Busted – a global ‘super cartel’, encrypted message crackdown and cocaine trails...

In November, police in Europe and other countries took down what they described as a ‘super cartel’ dominating the world’s cocaine trade. It seems the crackdown has a trail that leads all the way to...

Masterful high-level piece about transnational crime networks and the unprecedented insights provided by encrypted phone intercepts / traps by

@edcaesar

newyorker.com

Crooks’ Mistaken Bet on Encrypted Phones

Drug syndicates and other criminal groups bought into the idea that a new kind of phone network couldn’t be infiltrated by cops. They were wrong—big time.

Nick Budlender

@Nickbud_021

Apr 17

“Quite simply, having four military bases sprawled across desperately needed public land in the centre of Cape Town in the midst of a major housing crisis makes no sense at all.” - new piece out with

@adi_kumar_1

on the national government’s nonsensical approach to public land.

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Daily Maverick

@dailymaverick

Apr 16

Perhaps the most shocking failure of intergovernmental collaboration on housing is that 668ha of high-potential land in Cape Town is sitting largely vacant and underutilised under the custodianship of the Department of Defence. dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/20

The Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold Mines

Recommended.

's reporting on "zama zamas," the illegal gold mining economy in South Africa.

newyorker.com

When the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.

Apr 4

1/5 According to police, Charlene Mathews, widow of assassinated Mpumalanga crime boss Chief Clyde Mnisi was murdered shortly after 1am this morning by gunmen who invaded their Mkhuhlu home. She was shot twice in the head. Two other people were wounded. No arrests.

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John Edwin Mason

@johnedwinmason

Apr 3

Greg Marinovich, the great South African photographer, writer, & Pulitzer Prize winner, is posting photos & stories from his archive -- powerfully evocative of a troubled period in the country's history. This would be a good time to follow him.

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Greg

@GregMarinovich

Apr 3

7/7 A municipal gravedigger waits as a soccer team prays for their teammate & other people who were killed in cross fire in Ratunda township, Heidelberg, Transvaal, during conflict linked to the ANC & the IFP, November 1992. Photo Greg Marinovich

Dutch spinner and David Miller - best thing on the www today

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Shariz Ahmad

@ShaMofication

Apr 2

2014: 2023: How it started How it’s going

Frog and Toad Bot

@FrogandToadbot

Apr 1

Automated

“PRESENTING THE GREATEST TOAD IN ALL THE WORLD!”

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Thank you

and

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2. "If there is a lesson to be learned from South Africa’s mines, it is that cruelty begets desperation, which in turn begets more cruelty." @seywarddarby picks @kimondegreef's grim @NewYorker read on zama-zamas, or illegal miners, in South Africa: newyorker.com/magazine/2023/

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Mar 31

1/ Five months ago, at 10am on 29 October 2022, Clyde Mnisi, was crowned a chief in a ceremony at the Mhlangana High school in Islington. Today, at the same time and at the same venue, a memorial is expected be held for the assassinated Mpumalanga crime boss.

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also excellent word for a fish family: scombrid (includes tuna and mackerel)

Quality shark joke thread

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Katie O'Reilly

@DrKatfish

Mar 30

Replying to @WhySharksMatter

Oh no

A wahoo fish (also called the ono) and text

read image description

ALT

Al Jazeera Investigations

Mar 28

Today the I-Unit launches a new podcast season that takes you inside our #GoldMafia investigation. We go behind the scenes, hear from the investigators, and disclose NEW revelations not shown in the films. (1) Here's what to expect. ⤵️

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Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger - ENACT Africa

Mar 27

1/ Alleged Mpumalanga crime boss Clyde Mnisi, described as one of the “kingpins” in a “massive trafficking network of poached rhino horn” from

@SANParksKNP

, was shot dead early this morning. More on Mnisi in my recent

@ENACT_Africa

report

enactafrica.org

511

679

Consider donating to

- doing meaningful and essential journalism is expensive, laborious work. They do it well.

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Mar 25

1/9 Since we're unlikely to have this much attention on us again, we're using this opportunity to explain what we do and why.

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covers stories that otherwise wouldn’t be covered in SA. Such a good news organization. They just released a banger, but the regular stuff is v important too.

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Mar 25

1/9 Since we're unlikely to have this much attention on us again, we're using this opportunity to explain what we do and why.

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amaBhungane

@amaBhungane

Mar 24

1/ Watch the unmissable #AlJazeeraDocumentary Gold Mafia - Episode 1 - The Laundry Service

Gold Mafia - Episode 1 - The Laundry Service I Al Jazeera Investiga...

youtu.be/evWEuVR1XIs and see why

@amaBhungane

focused on Zimbabwean tobacco baron Simon Rudland and Southern African money laundry networks in the past year.

youtube.com

Undercover reporters pose as gangsters with up to a billion dollars of black money that need to be cleaned. They gain remarkable access to members of Africa’...

Replying to

"it is troubling that an inmate serving a life sentence ... was able to run such an elaborate business from behind bars. It is astounding that a convicted violent sex offender should have free access to the internet. It is weird that he had access to a suit."

Mar 24

This story keeps on giving

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Mar 24

Thabo Bester ran a glamorous media company from prison. groundup.org.za/article/thabo-

Mar 23

Jaw-drop revelations in this

Al Jazeera Investigations

undercover investigation on gold smuggling and money laundering in Zimbabwe / Southern Africa. Can't wait for parts 2, 3 and 4.

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Mar 23

Exclusive: The I-Unit has filmed a senior Zimbabwean diplomat agreeing to launder billions of dollars in cash. Posing as criminals, the I-Unit undercover reporters uncovered networks in Africa that launder vast sums of money using gold. Watch #GoldMafia

aje.io/gmep1

2:44

710K views

Mar 23

This story is completely bonkers, and

has reported it so well

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Mar 22

Facebook rapist: Deputy Minister was informed by warden in June that Thabo Bester escaped groundup.org.za/article/facebo

Kay Peddle

@KayPeddle

Mar 22

this is an astonishing, albeit devastating, read by

The Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold Mines

newyorker.com

When the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.

Reducing murder must be a top SA government priority - ISS Africa

Andrew Faull

@AGFaull

Mar 21

In 2022, South Africa’s murder rate was 44.7 per 100 000. It was last this high 20 years ago. According to available international data, only Jamaica had a higher per capita murder rate than South Africa last year. issafrica.org/iss-today/redu #SouthAfrica #EBP

@SAPoliceService

issafrica.org

Joseph Cotterill

@jsphctrl

This is grim. Even insolvency practitioners seem to be a target for assassination in South Africa.

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eNCA

@eNCA

[BREAKING NEWS] Prominent liquidator Cloete Murray dies in hospital after sustaining critical injuries. Murray and his son were shot on N1 North near New Road offramp in Midrand on Saturday. #DStv403 #eNCA

Few assassinations are solved in SA. Unsurprising in a country where, according to

@issafrica

, 86% of murder cases went unsolved last year. And, after a brief decline in 2020, murder-for-hire is on the rise. More in

@GI_TOC

's organised crime assessment: globalinitiative.net/wp-content/upl

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Mandy Wiener

@MandyWiener

Curator Cloete Murray has died in hospital after he and his son were shot in a hit yesterday. If there was a big liquidation in SA, Cloete handled it. He would go after the assets. This is devastating for the fight against crime and corruption. It will have a chilling effect.

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Temba hits a hundred and

Artists United Against Apartheid - Sun City

Mar 17

(I haven't been able to find a source for this ostensible Ndebele quote)

ChatGPT, in theory, could make reporting so much faster. But it also introduces some big risks. I had this weird exchange after asking for quotations about the Bantustan system by South African writers. (But imagine if/when searches like this work!)

Some more artists: Bob Dylan, Gil-Scott Heron, Miles Davis. Given the star power, it's a distressingly bad piece of music :(

Astonished to learn this week of the protest song written by Steven van Zandt (Silvio in The Sopranos) and featuring 50+ musicians, including Run-DMC, Bono and Herbie Hancock, about Sun City, the mega-resort developed by SA's Donald Trump:

youtube.com

Not long after Band Aid and We Are The World focused musical attention on poverty and famine, a collection of artists took a similar approach in the struggle...

Jailed in Egypt at 17, He Wrote to Survive and to Share His Long Ordeal

Aida Alami

@AidaAlami

Mar 17

My latest: Sentenced as a teenager to 15 years for “unlawful assembly,” Abdelrahman ElGendy (

@El_Gendy_95

) started recording the abuses of prison life. The idea of someday publishing his memoir gave him a reason to live. #Egypt

nytimes.com

Sentenced as a teenager to 15 years for “unlawful assembly,” Abdelrahman ElGendy started recording the abuses of prison life. The idea of someday publishing his memoir gave him a reason to live.

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Classic fraud trope, buying lavish mattresses

Two 36,000 dollar what ?

Using the word gang loosely here. Syndicate / smuggling ring / etc

Looks like another gang murder in the Free State goldfields

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Times LIVE

@TimesLIVE

Mar 15

Free State police have launched a manhunt after five people suspected to be illegal miners were found shot execution style at a mine on Tuesday. timeslive.co.za/news/south-afr

could be the funniest niche tweet I’ve seen. Genius really.

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gharieth

@hmtfu

Mar 13

the seals in hout bay

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