Residents of Krugersdorp are living in fear as illegal miners are becoming more brazen and more dangerous.
This became all too real for the employees of the Lancaster Mine Gold Plant in Luipaardsvlei during the past two days.
The mine has existed since 1897, but in December 2018, it closed temporarily. According to one of the employees, there has been little activity around the plant since then, the only incidents being the plundering of the infrastructure around the plant.
Photos: Natasha Pretorius.
Sunday, 7 April was however the turning point for peace at the plant.
Read the initial article here:
https://www.citizen.co.za/krugersdorp-news/377121/shootout-from-alleged-turf-war-in-wentworth-park-kept-residents-awake-and-fearful-for-their-safety/
The employee explained that people had been coming to the plant in the days leading up to Sunday.
“They were just asking about our operations and what we do here,” he said.
On Sunday morning, however, a car drove up to the security at the plant and a group of illegal miners offered them R50 000 to leave. The illegal miners, or zama-zamas, warned them that if they did not leave, they should be wary of an attack.
On Sunday evening, a panic button was pressed in the office building and a local security company responded. When they arrived, they found one man lying on the floor of the office. Before they could even attend to the injured man, they were attacked by 20 or so armed men, shooting at them from all sides.
The security officers retreated and the police were phoned.
“The man lying in the office had been shot, so on my way out I phoned for an ambulance,” said the employee.
By the time he got to where the security officers had retreated to, the Krugersdorp Police were already on scene, but they informed him that the plant was not in their area and that they had to wait for the Kagiso Police to respond to the scene.
“I wanted to go in and get my guys – I knew at least one of them was seriously injured,” he said.
When the Kagiso Police arrived, they informed him that they could not go in without a plan or back-up. While waiting for the back-up to arrive, they saw the electricity to the plant go out. Later they saw flames coming from the plant.
By 10.50pm, about nine police vehicles, four security vehicles and an ambulance were waiting to enter the plant. By 11.49pm, nearly an hour later, they were able to enter the plant, but by then it was already almost too late.
“The fire brigade arrived and started putting out the fires, but they had to refill their trucks as the fire was not dying down,” the employee explained.
The plant’s office buildings, workshop, a bakkie parked outside and one of their trucks were torched. The illegal miners also raided all the buildings and stole everything that they could.
The security officer lying on the floor had been shot in the chest five times. Another one was shot in the leg. Two others were badly beaten and one of them ran away. He was found in Leratong Hospital the next day. One of the responding security companies’ officers was also shot at, but fortunately the bullet only pierced the leg of his trousers.
On Monday, the company called in the help of another armed security company and after fixing the fences and getting the electricity going again, the plant was deemed to be fairly safe. But on Monday night, it was attacked once more.
This time, all the roads around the plant were blocked off, in order to slow the security company’s response down.
Residents of Krugersdorp said they could hear the gunshots as far away as Noordheuwel, and different types of firearms were being used, including automatic firearms.
The News is awaiting feedback from the police on the matter and will update this developing story accordingly.
