The schoolyard no longer fills with noise at first light. Windows stand open without glass, doors hang loose, and the chalk dust has long settled. On the West Rand, an abandoned school has taken on a different purpose, occupied not by students but by illegal miners searching for shelter between shifts underground.
What was once a place of routine and order has become temporary refuge. Classrooms are divided into sleeping spaces, corridors used for storage, and the grounds adapted to the rhythms of informal mining life. For nearby residents, the transformation has been gradual but unsettling, marked by unfamiliar movement and the steady erosion of what was left behind.
Authorities say the occupants are linked to illegal mining operations active in the region, part of a broader network that has long relied on abandoned infrastructure. Schools, hostels, and unused industrial buildings often provide cover — structures already neglected, distant from formal oversight, and easy to adapt for short-term survival.
The West Rand has become a focal point for such activity, shaped by old mine shafts and the economic pull of residual gold deposits. For those drawn into illegal mining, accommodation is rarely planned. Vacant buildings offer proximity, anonymity, and protection from the elements, even as they deepen tensions with surrounding communities.
Local officials have acknowledged the occupation and said plans are under discussion to remove the miners and secure the property. Such operations, however, tend to be temporary solutions. Evictions are followed by returns, unless buildings are repurposed or properly guarded. The school’s abandonment, like many others, created a vacuum long before it was filled.
For former pupils and teachers, the sight is particularly stark. A place built for learning now carries the signs of exhaustion and risk. The desks are gone, but the structure remains, holding traces of its past purpose beneath layers of dust and improvisation.
As authorities prepare a response, the school stands as a symbol of intersecting failures — of infrastructure left unused, of livelihoods pushed underground, and of communities caught between neglect and necessity. The classrooms wait again, this time not for students, but for a decision about what the space is meant to be.
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Sources Reuters News24 SABC News Daily Maverick