The gas leak was a result of illegal mining activities. Photo: The Citizen/Neil McCartney
The tragic consequences of the unchecked lawlessness in South Africa. That is what the deaths of 17 people in the toxic gas spill in the zama zama camp in Boksburg are.
It’s doubly heart-breaking because there are three children who are innocent victims of the “collateral damage” of the incident, which looks like it was related, directly or indirectly, to zama zamas‘ gold refining operation.
Whatever the actual cause of the deaths, the reality is that it is our government which has blood on its hands.
This is because, despite the evidence staring them in the face of this anarchic underground structure of illicit gold recovery and mining – which has cost scores of lives, both in the dangerous mines themselves and in the surrounding communities – the government has done nothing.
Illegal miners have been accused of murder, rape, robbery and a myriad illegal activities and are even threatening the safety of entire areas by continuing to dig and undermine the earth which could lead to fatal ground collapses.
Many of them have also died in cave-ins and from poisonous underground gases.
They are also linked to bigger and more dangerous diversified criminal syndicates.
Why is nothing being done about this crisis?