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Gloria Mine experiences a surge of crime, amid recovery

In a catastrophic turn of events, the victory of recovering 13 more bodies from the Gloria mine-shaft was short lived, when a second attempt at illegal entry of the Mine resulted in the assault of a security officer.

February 24, 2019

Press Release 1 minute read

Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, announced in a media statement, that a group of 15 men stormed onto the premises, attacking security officers on duty and inflicting injury on one of them by senselessly kicking him in the face. They then proceeded to damage one of their reaction vehicles by smashing the windscreen.

A dispatch was sent out to the Police and the group scattered upon their arrival.

It cannot be confirmed what the group’s intentions were, however, cable theft cannot be ruled out.

Brig. Hlathi has made an earnest appeal towards community members to refrain from damaging the infrastructure of these mines. He furthermore, went on to state that no one has the right to trespass onto someone else’s property, as it is a criminal offence.

The Provincial Commissioner of the Police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma, said that whilst the province is currently facing a challenge regarding the retrieval of bodies, of which some are still trapped, there are individuals who still have the same criminal intentions. They put their own lives at risk during the process, thereby causing more problems for authorities by becoming part of the statistics.

General Zuma further stated that such criminal tendencies will not be tolerated at any time. He called on law-abiding citizens as well as concern foreign nationals, to cooperate with the police by volunteering information so that these thieves could be stopped in their tracks.