For many years, Friends Of Rescued Animals (Fora) has been serving the community of Krugersdorp and its surrounding areas.

Sadly, on Friday, 21 August, Linda Scrace, Fora manager took to Facebook to ask for the community’s help to find a new place for their shelter. She explained their troubles started about a year ago when illegal miners moved in right behind their property.

“At first it was only a handful,” she said. “But during lockdown the area was transformed into a village with a makeshift processing plant for the illegal miners.”

According to Linda, the illegal miners did not bother the staff and animals at first, but as time went on they started noticing their water bill was increasing.

At first I thought it was some of them using the tap at the back of the property, but then at the beginning of lockdown we noticed the bill skyrocketing and it just kept increasing every month.”

She said they searched for leaks but found none, and eventually figured out that the illegal miners had tapped into their water supply underground. Their only solution at that point was to repipe the property above ground, and installed switch-off valves at certain points to cut off supply when not being used.

This, however, was not their only run-in with the zama zamas.

Linda explained that gunshots are almost a daily occurrence, the latest incident being on Friday, 21 August, which she described as the worst shootout they ever had.

Normally it is just from behind the property, but this time it was everywhere. It was so bad, some of our dogs went over and through the fences,” she said.

The property they are using now has also been approved for low-cost housing and although the owners cannot say when construction will begin, they have decided to look for a property to buy. They are looking for a minimum of three hectares, hopefully a little more.

Fora was originally established to service the community of Krugersdorp, and over the years has also started helping neighbouring areas. That is why they are looking for something in the area, preferably far from housing projects and not earmarked for any projects in the future.

They are looking at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai Cradle areas as well. Fora is a non-profit organisation which means that funding for the new premises will mostly come from fundraising. They will need funds to buy the land and build the infrastructure for the animals.

Until then the staff at Fora continues to give their animals all their love and care, even though their lives sometimes are in danger.