Keerom Spruit a free-for-all under illegal sand miners
Since the granting of mining rights to Mr Thabo Magutle to legally mine sand on a portion next to the Keerom stream it has become a free for all with even employees from the municipality who jumped on the bandwagon.
Miners say that the municipality is granting permission for illegal operators to mine it and sell it back to the municipality.
They also claim they are being charged for the aggregates.
Mr Magutle is the only legal sand miner on the property, after following the lengthy process of applying for the necessary permits.
He obtained his licence earlier this year after halting all mining operations during the waiting period.
The wait was exacerbated by the closure of the district offices of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in eMalahleni over corruption and maladministration claims.
Also read: Illegal sand mine near Botshabelo
According to a source on site, the municipality is now charging illegal miners for materials to make some money off the digs.
The area where the mining is taking place was once earmarked for olive and walnut groves by Mr Stephan Austin, who had a lease agreement with the municipality for the agricultural venture. The sandy nature of the land was ideal to establish the groves, with promises of several positive spin-offs for the town and its economy.
Mr Austin later offered to buy the land to establish and expand on the sustainable venture, but council denied him the opportunity by exorbitantly upping the selling price.
When Mr Austin’s lease expired, the entire venture went down the drain, with the saplings that had already been planted.
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Millions of tons of sand have been mined from the site over the last two years, without any rehabilitation being done.
The stream’s bank has consequently eroded to such an extent that flooding is inevitable.
Since becoming aware of the illegal mining operations the municipality has maintained that no action could be taken against the culprits because the municipality had no mining bylaws in place. The authority also said it did not want to deter anyone from putting food on their tables.
As a result, more and more miners have set up shop on the land.
• Municipal Manager Mr Bheki Khenisa says the mining is still illegal and that it was made very clear to the illegal miners during a meeting between them and the municipality’s legal department.
