In Bapong, a mining village in North West province, several homes are now surrounded by massive pits dug by illegal miners using excavators. Residents say they were offered money in exchange for access to mine chrome, with some allegedly agreeing while others refused.
Whole chunks of a once-busy road in Johannesburg have collapsed because of damage caused by the illegal mining rampant across South Africa's economic hub.
Elsewhere along Wemmer Pan Road, there are cracks and sinkholes from underground blasting by irregular miners digging beneath the city for gold and other minerals.
The round-the-clock operations are undermining Johannesburg's infrastructure - from transport and power networks to homes and buildings - and introducing crime linked to competition between gangs, residents and officials, residents say.
"At first it was the blasting and the tremors from underground, and we would feel our flat shake," 45-year-old Voneen Trompeter told AFP in Roodepoort, northwest of central Johannesburg.
