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License illegal mining operations to create much needed jobs – report
Survey notes that police are overwhelmed by heavily armed, highly organised and connected network of illegal mining syndicates.
Photo for illustrative purposes only. Image: Mpumalanga News
The national crackdown on illegal mining has been welcomed as a turning point in rooting out the scourge, with calls for government to incentivise the expansion of mining operations to abandoned shafts to create jobs.
After this week’s blitz that netted more than 45 suspects and left one casualty on Gauteng’s West Rand, Police Minister Bheki Cele said they would be concentrating on all illegal operations in four problematic provinces.
This after the gang rape of eight women during a music video shoot at the Krugersdorp’s West Village mining dumps allegedly by a group of illegal miners or zama zamas.
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Hotspots are typically areas where there is easy access to gold, platinum and chrome mining areas like Gauteng’s Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, mining areas in the North West – Rustenburg platinum and chrome belt as well as the Free State and Northern Cape.
According to mining security specialists Blue Hawk Tactical’s Illegal Mining in South Africa: Key Statistics and Information 2017 – 2022 report, 90% of illegal miners arrested on the East Rand were from outside South Africa and half of those arrested were between the ages of 11 and 18.
Police Overwhelmed
The report notes that there was no focused approach to the crisis as law enforcement have too much to deal with, have no capacity and lacked resources to deal with the heavily armed, highly organised and connected network of illegal mining syndicates.
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Conditions underground are perilous as the zama zamas open up areas, where there is natural radioactivity, minimal ventilation with reported underground prostitution, drug dealing, and trade in explosives and weapons.
Abandoned mines are adjacent to existing shafts sealed by existing mining companies, which have been blasted open at least 26 times in one specific area.
The report, therefore, established that tackling illegal mining, both on the surface and underground, not only required combined tactical policing, but also specialised skills which could only be achieved with more public and private intervention.
This included focused policing, cameras on mining areas as well as on the streets, monitored by a control room remotely with response from local law enforcement and private security.
Futile legislation
The report has also lamented that SA’s legislation aimed at regulating artisanal mining has had little effect on illegal mining and that government must incentivise the expansion of operations to the abandoned mines to create jobs.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy issued licenses to a number of illegal miners in Kimberley, to mine for diamonds in partnership with a local mining company.
But then, the report noted, those without licenses then embark on illegal mining activities on allocated sites, the same way the zama zamas stole gold from legitimate mining houses.
“Mines should be incentivised by government for those who create jobs and expand their production in previously abandoned areas, as these are the hotspots that attract foreigners and criminal syndicates – This to us is the single most important opportunity to reduce illegal mining,” the survey noted.
The report urged government to make it easier for the mines to do business and acquire permits in abandoned areas where there is criminal activity so they can take over, create jobs with legitimate mining licenses and mining operations for medium sized to large mines.
