RANDFONTEIN: On crutches and with a bullet lodged in his leg, Miami Chauke is among the few people who did not flee the gun attacks that emptied South Africa’s once-bustling settlement of Sporong, where abandoned tin shacks bake in the sun.
Hundreds of other residents of the area just west of Johannesburg fled two weeks ago, terrorized by violence, extortion and threats they blame on increasingly brazen illegal gold miners.
Taking refuge in a community hall 11 kilometers (seven miles) from their homes, the displaced people of Sporong are among several communities living in fear of the several thousand illegal miners estimated to be operating in South Africa.
“They all had guns and we were running but they kept shooting,” 32-year-old Chauke told AFP of the battle one November night that left a bullet in his left leg.
“I am still in pain. I can’t walk even for 200 meters,” he said.
