The irony is, corrupt businessmen and politicians are behind the bloody warfare for black gold.
Their ploy is to intimidate bidders for lucrative mining contracts, and when intimidation fails, bullets fly.

Eskom’s former COO Jan Oberholzer was quite candid about the capture of Eskom by crime cartels during a recent meeting with the Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Despite Eskom’s management’s knowledge of widescale corruption and theft, no concrete proof of cartel interference is available, Mr Oberholzer said.

He said that cartel kingpins continued with their looting without fear because they use lackeys in Eskom to stay below the radar.
“Have we seen anyone in an orange prison overall yet?” he proved his point.

Eskom’s CEO André de Ruyter, who blew the whistle on the multi-billion corruption and theft rings having infiltrated Eskom, remains an open target, with the ANC openly discrediting him.

The government went as far as to grant Eskom exemption from disclosing irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure in its annual financial statements, with the state of disaster as a tool. It was, however, placed on ice following public disapproval.

While procurement seems to be Eskom’s biggest problem, the competition for mining contracts to supply Eskom has become the trigger among private businesses bidding for the purse.

In this week’s paper, the Middelburg Observer exposed the mining warfare in Belfast over mining contracts which have resulted in a number of deadly shootings, most recently the assassination attempt on Mr Mshoza Malaza, who bagged a multi-million rand contract for topsoil stripping and the management of a mine’s rehabilitation dump in December.

Mr Malaza’s one index finger had to be amputated, and he went blind for two months, after having been shot at with an R1 automatic rifle, while his daughters, aged seven and six, were in the vehicle with him.

The investigation was taken from the Belfast Police and handed to a task team comprising of high-profile Middelburg detectives.
No arrests have been made, but Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the investigation has already undercovered desired results.

Mr Oberholzer, however, warned that “as soon as one cartel falls, another takes its place”.

In 2020, young entrepreneurs Sifiso Sindane and Innocent Malaza were also attacked.

Mr Malaza’s house was torched in 2018, while Mr Sindane survived 13 gunshots, with six striking him in the legs.

In 2018, Mduduzi Shongwe was also shot by unknown men, while Petros Nkosi was attacked in 2019, and the house of former eMakhazeni Local Municipality mayor, Mr Xolani Ngwenya, was torched.