The police had a big success during an operation against illegal miners this week. According to WO Peter Masooa of the police in Carletonville, the West Rand police’s illegal mining team held a big sting in the Carletonville area on Tuesday, 22 September. The action started at 1:00. “The team was led by Brig. Mashadi Selepe and included SANDF, the Department of home affairs and mining security. The operation focused on illegal mining and undocumented persons. This kind of crime threatens the economy of the country,” he says. The law enforcers arrested 124 alleged illegal miners and one person being in possession of an illegal firearm. The Enfield 303 rifle the suspect had with him was also confiscated. The police confiscated seven containers with 45 rounds of live ammunition, 45 cell phones, 45 bala- clavas, 35 shovels, seven pickaxes, 13 buckets of gold-bearing material and seven empty buckets. All the suspects appeared in the Oberholzer Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 23 September. 
