Community led Animal Welfare (Claw), led by the ever-fiery Cora Bailey, remains under siege by zama zamas, who have significantly escalated their activities from digging for gold around their property, to digging inside the property.
According to Cora Friday, August 8, was a harrowing night for their live-in staff, as a large group of illegal miners entered their staff courters, digging up most of the yard in search of gold.
“We were notified by the workers, who say they went to look outside when they heard noises coming from the garden shortly after 22:00,” she says.
“They found a group of 20 or more zama zamas completely tearing up the yard. They fled back into their rooms and called me. I immediately called the police.”
Bailey says that, to her horror, the police never showed up.
“They eventually showed up the next morning,” she adds. “By that time the zamas had packed up and left. The police officers who did show up just looked around, did not even bother identifying themselves to our workers, and made remarks along the lines that this place should be demolished.”
The Roodepoort Record has previously reported that Claw’s once pristine driveway and parking area had become a target of the illegal miners.
“We managed to work around that situation,” says Cora.
“We mostly did our thing and stayed out of their way as much as possible, but them encroaching onto our property presents a whole new set of challenges. We have to consider the safety of our staff and the animals that we treat here. It is a question of time before the structural integrity of our buildings are affected.”
The Record has previously spoken to Roodepoort police’s Colonel Clive de Freitas, who admitted that police face an uphill battle when it comes to illegal mining in areas such as Durban Deep, seeing as the zamas have a well-established network of informants that warn them whenever police are in the vicinity.
The Record has posed questions to provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo, whose reply will be published in a follow-up article.
