Roodeport – Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu says she has asked law enforcement agencies to conduct sting operations at several mine dumps to root-out illegal mining.
Speaking to journalists after conducting a site inspection at a mine dump site in Roodeport on Wednesday, Shabangu said her department would also work with local authorities to ensure that mine dumps, where illegal mining is prevalent, are claimed by the state and used for other projects like the construction of low-cost housing.
Her visit comes at a time that the SA Police Service’s elite crime fighting unit, the Hawks, recently upped the ante in its campaign to deal with illegal mining in the area.
“The intension is to make sure that we are able to work on the land as government, and be able to utilise this land for Human Settlements or other government [work].
“If you look at what is going on, one is an illegal activity… and the other is the degradation of the land, which then means the government will continue to inherit areas where mining used to happen, which have been destroyed.
“So the objective is to really deal with illegal mining, stop what is going on, but also to make sure what goes on here – because it also robs the country – is stopped.”
Shabangu said illegal miners, who would refuse to discontinue with their unlawful activities, would have to face the full might of the law.
When Shabangu arrived on the first site – an abandoned mining area between Roodepoort and Dobsonville, Soweto - those suspected to be illegal miners ran into the bushes after being scared of the heavy police contingent that accompanied her.
Miners had set up makeshift gold processing structures out of wood, plastic papers and towels, with pipes connected to a generator that drew water from the nearby pond.
Shabangu rolled up her sleeves and destroyed some of the structures, and said that a task team that she had set up prior to the visit had already identified other “hot spots” where more sting operations would be carried out.
She said that it was suspected that the illegal miners were organised by a syndicate of sorts.
“We will be moving to other sites, this is not the only one. But it is quite clear that it is the same team. And if you look at how they are organised, there might be syndicates that might be operating in these areas.”
Illegal mining a threat to SA
In recent months, emergency teams have had to be dispatched to disused mines and dumpsites similar to the one in Roodepoort, where illegal miners had lost their lives while drilling rocks underground.
Shabangu said the illegal activity was not only a threat to the health of the illegal miners, but also impacted negatively on the economy.
She said a 2010 study found that R6 billion was being lost to illegal mining annually, and that it could be more today.
“The report we got from the [Gauteng provincial commissioner Mzwandile Petros] is that these kinds of activities also lead to other crimes in Gauteng, and that they contribute to about 10% of crimes around Gauteng. So you can see that it has a major bearing on the social aspect of our country.” – SANews.gov.za
