Mining has been the backbone of the South African economy for many years. For more than a century it has contributed considerably to the welfare of the people of SA. Because of SA’s long history of mining, the country has many abandoned mines that are the source of various environmental and social problems. Bureaucrats call them death traps and want to board them up. Adventurers (mostly children) call them time capsules and want to go down and explore. A mother from Jerusalema informal settlement on the East Rand has lost her five-year-old son, Richard Thole. He fell into a disused mine shaft and his body has not been found. Scores of "illegal miners" have died underground in abandoned mines that have not been sealed off properly.
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