Surviving on a diet of toothpaste and toilet paper, South Africa's notorious "zama-zama" illegal miners continue a weeks-long standoff with police in the darkness of a disused gold mine.

Around the gaping shaft of a disused mine, the South African police on Saturday waited to pounce on anyone trying to escape to the surface. Their siege has gone on for weeks, trying to flush out hundreds of men accused of illegal mining in an abandoned gold mine,

Association says the government does not ‘have the will to act’ and the solution is regulation to allow artisanal miners to work legally

The narrative of criminality is dangerous. It dehumanises destitute people, who are forced into informal mining to escape poverty.

Estimated hundreds of illegal miners are still being trapped underground in South Africa's North West province after a court has ordered police to let them leave. For weeks, authorities had blocked supply lines of food and water to force the miners out.

South African authorities are embroiled in a standoff with an unconfirmed number of illegal miners who remain underground at an abandoned mine, apparently fearing arrest by police officers deployed at the site.