The hunt for alleged Stilfontein kingpin Tiger

Nobody in South Africa seems to know where Tiger is.

The 42-year-old from neighbouring Lesotho, whose real name is James Neo Tshoaeli, has evaded a police manhunt for the past four months.

Detained after being accused of controlling the illegal operations at an abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein in South Africa, where 78 corpses were discovered underground in January, Tiger escaped custody, police allege.

Four policemen, alleged to have aided his breakout, are out on bail and awaiting trial, but the authorities appear no closer to learning the fugitive’s whereabouts.

We went to Lesotho to find out more about this elusive man and to hear from those affected by the subterranean deaths.

Tiger’s home is near the city of Mokhotlong, a five-hour drive from the capital, Maseru, on the road that skirts the nation’s mountains.

We visit his elderly mother, Mampho Tshoaeli, and his younger brother, Thabiso.

Unlike Tiger, Thabiso decided to stay at home and rear sheep for a living, rather than join the illegal miners, known as zama zamas, in South Africa.

Neither of them has seen Tiger in eight years.

“He was a friendly child to everyone,” Ms Tshoaeli recalls.

“He was peaceful even at school, his teachers never complained about him. So generally, he was a good person,” she says.

Thabiso, five years younger than Tiger, says they both used to look after the family sheep when they were children.

“When we were growing up he wanted to be a policeman. That was his dream. But that never happened because, when our father passed away, he had to become the head of the family.”

Tiger, who was 21 at the time, decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and headed to South Africa to work in a mine – but not in the formal sector.

“It was really hard for me,” says his mother. “I really felt worried for him because he was still fragile and young at that time. Also because I was told that to go down into the mine, they used a makeshift lift.”

He would come back when he got time off or for Christmas. And during that first stint as a zama zama his mother said he was the family’s main provider.

“He really supported us a lot. He was supporting me, giving me everything, even his siblings. He made sure that they had clothes and food.”

The last time his family saw or heard from him was in 2017 when…