EACH load of coal Siphelelo Ntshangase delivers takes him closer to his dream of completing his electrical engineering studies.

The 21-year-old dropped out of the Majuba Vocational and Further Education College last year due to financial difficulties.

Ntshangase had managed to complete his N4 study level by the time he left the Newcastle college.

He is among the people handed a lifeline by the illegal coal mine in Blaauwbosch in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.

"I'm saving, preparing to return to school," said Ntshangase.

Ntshangase sells a wheelbarrow full of coal for between R50 and R70, depending on the distance travelled.

Much of the coal mined at the Blaauwbosch mine is sold to households eager to save costs from the increasingly expensive electricity.

Most households use coal to cook or burn imbawula (a brazier).

Ntshangase, who lives with his cousin in Blaauwbosch, told Sowetan his day usually started at 6am. By late in the afternoon, he is still digging with picks and spades.

Almost all the miners handle coal with bare hands.

For 58-year-old SS Ngcobo, living off the mine is not ideal but it would be catastrophic if it was ever closed. "It would be sad if we were told to stop."

Ngcobo said the mine was a free-for-all and open to all residents. "There's no age limit, it depends on your strength."

Ngcobo is a former coal miner in nearby Utrecht but claims he has never been sick since he started working at the Blaauwbosch opencast mine in 1976.

"It's tough but we have no other option. Khona lapha siyaphila (Here we survive)," he said.

The father of eight also employs up to four people a day and pays them up to R3.50 per load of sandstone they deliver to the site where he makes bricks, about 30m up a steep path from the mine.

For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays