Clawing back at zamas
What was once a beautiful driveway and parking area have now been destroyed by illegal miners.
Community Led Animal Welfare (Claw) has been providing essential services within local communities for years.
From spaying, deworming and vaccines, to emergency medical care for animals, especially in areas not serviced, or under-serviced by other animal rescue organisations; Claw does it all.
On any given day their premises on Durban Deep Road is a hive of activity with community members bringing their animals for much-needed medical attention, and volunteers rushing to get through the enormous task of caring for all the animals.
A typical week at Claw can see as many as 100 animals of every imaginable species coming through their doors.
“Our hospital is nearly permanently at full capacity,” adds Cora Bailey from the organisation.
Yet, in the face of the already daunting task this organisation undertakes, it now faces an even bigger challenge from the rife illegal mining that takes place quite literally right on its doorstep.
Their once pristine driveway and parking area have been reduced to rubble, dug up by zama zamas (illegal miners) in their search for gold.
“During the day, everything is fine,” says Cora. “It is business as usual, but as soon as it gets dark, the zamas appear. It has become so bad that they are starting to dig under the foundations of the building.”
Cora took the Roodepoort Record on a short trip around the primary area that they service, and journalist Johan Meyer was shocked at the audacity of the illegal miners.
“The entire area is littered with evidence of illegal mining,” he says. “They are digging holes in the middle of the road.”
Recently, zama zamas have become so bold that they have started conducting their illicit business out in the open with no fear whatsoever of authorities.
During the Record’s visit, a small group of zamas were picking through the rubble that had once been the parking area, while a much larger group was hard at work right next to Claw’s perimeter fence.
According to Roodepoort police’s Colonel Clive de Freitas, police do their best to put a stop to illegal mining, but an area like Durban Deep is impossible to effectively police.
“The miners simply disappear at first sight of the police,” says De Freitas. “The area is such that they can slip away easily into the bushes, or pretend to be part of the construction crews that are working along the road. There is no way for police officers to differentiate the construction workers from the illegal miners.”
De Freitas emphasises that these challenges do not deter police from trying.
“We conduct regular patrols and operations within this area, and we will continue to do so,” he says.
