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.

Along with about 600 other men, Ndumiso lives and works in a small gang-controlled "town" - complete with markets and a red light district - that has grown up deep underground at a disused gold mine in South Africa.

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.

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

South Africa's government says it will let thousands of illegal miners starve until they accept their fate and emerge from an abandoned shaft to face arrest.

The police have cut off food and water to miners for weeks in a bid to force them out of an abandoned mine. Human rights advocates and community leaders call the tactics inhumane.

The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.

South African police were in a standoff on Thursday with hundreds of illegal miners believed to be underground in a disused shaft, a day after a cabinet minister said the government was trying to "smoke them out".

A South African court ordered police to end a standoff with illegal miners to allow emergency workers to gain access to a mine shaft where several hundred are believed to remain after the government cut off vital supplies.

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.