Published: August 7, 2017 |

The door to an old shaft at the abandoned Blyvoor gold mine.
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The infrastructure that once extracted Blyvoor's wealth now stands in neglect.
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Thousands of unemployed miners in South Africa are calling on the Government to save their town.

The Blyvoor gold mine, near Johannesburg, shut down in 2013 when it became unprofitable.

Once one of the richest gold mines in the world, the mine village has now become a ghost town as scavengers strip it bare.

For almost 70 years, thousands of miners worked underground in Blyvoor.

At its peak, the gold mining industry was driving the South African economy and this town boasted some of the highest, per capita, earnings in the world.

But now, parts of the South African mining industry are struggling due to falls in commodity prices, increases in wages and uncertainty surrounding the Government’s mining policy.
Three boys walk cross paths with a couple and a young child walk on a Blyvoor street

The industry which once employed more than half a million people is now losing 1,200 jobs a month.

When the Blyvoor mine shut in 2013, more than 1,600 workers were left without a job.

Comfort Zwane was one of them.

“The life changed from hundred to zero,” Mr. Zwane said.

“Which means we are surviving each and every day.

“It changed dramatically, because we didn’t know.

“If we were informed or we knew it’s going to be this problem, maybe we are going to try to do something.

“Our lives has just dropped to zero.”

‘IT BREAKS MY HEART’

Some of the unemployed miners have stayed in the mine village. Their houses are intact.

But all the public buildings in the town have been stripped by scavengers, looking for scrap to sell.

Pule Molefe used to work at the local hospital.

Now it is a ruin, in only four years. It looks like it has been bombed.

“It breaks my heart actually,” Mr. Molefe said.

“It breaks my heart, to see something like this happen in such a beautiful place.”

Out at the golf club, there is almost nothing left.

It has been stripped too. Only an old pair of golf shoes has been left behind.

Local government is refusing to take on responsibility for the town, because it is private property.

Michael Clements from Lawyers for Human Rights said while there had been some interest in trying to revive the mine, the village was not attracting any corporate interest.

“Since then, there has been no buyer for the mine village,” Mr. Clements said.

“So, while various of the assets have been sold to various mining concerns, the village itself has not been purchased and is likely not to be purchased, by any private entity.”

On the upside, the miners are living rent-free and some have moved into the large former homes of their former bosses.

But they are battling to keep electricity, sewerage and water connected to a town that technically does not exist.

Mr. Molefe is part of a committee representing local residents.

He said the Government could have stepped in when the town’s facilities were still intact.

“So everything is here,” Mr. Molefe said.

“So the Government had to just come in and take over.

“Now they have to start afresh.”

The former gold miners of Blyvoor are hoping someone will help them save their town.

But time is running out.

-  By:  Sally Sara, ABC News