Johannesburg - The communities of Sol Plaatjie and Durban Deep are fed up with illegal miners from Lesotho who continue to make their lives a living hell following reports of daily shoot-outs at some of the open shafts in the area.
Members of the community said on Wednesday night that a group of illegal miners operating in the area were at it again as they continued their deadly confrontations.
“We don’t feel safe at night in this area. We have been complaining about the illegal miners and hope the presence of the police today will restore order, as we have been terrorised by gunshots and fighting from illegal zama-zamas,” Mbuso Zwane said.
This comes after Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela and other law-enforcement agencies conducted a search-and-seizure of illegal mining equipment yesterday while in search of illegal zama-zamas as part of Operation Shanela, which is set to continue for 32 weeks.
Another community member who declined to be named screamed: “These Sotho nationals must go back to Lesotho. We don’t want them here anymore, as they are making our lives a living hell. At night, the shooting becomes worse as they fight over minerals in this area. Last (night) was no different with another shoot-out.”
Mawela said the operation came after a series of arrests in places such as Riverlea, Durban Deep, Denver and surrounding areas, which he said saw more than 50 arrests this week alone.
Yesterday alone, Mawela said Operation Shanela in Sol Plaatjie resulted in the arrest of five people involved in illegal mining.
Mawela said his province had been given 32 weeks to crack down on illegal mining activities in the province.
“We, as the province, have been given a mandate to conduct regular raids to squeeze these illegal miners thin,” he said.
Mawela added that their efforts were being thwarted by some within the police force who were working in cahoots with the illegal miners. This is because with every visit to invade illegal miners, the police found the sites deserted.
Mawela says the police service faces inside threats from intelligence leaks.
During the operations in Sol Plaatje, a township in Roodepoort, police recovered illegal mining equipment, including dozens and dozens of phendukas, machetes and other equipment used to mine illegally.
“We want to arrest illegal miners in the act. We have those who collude with illegal miners. On a normal day, there is a hive of illegal mining activity here.
“There are people among us in the police who are working with these illegal miners. As you can see, the place is deserted. For illegal miners not to be here today means they have inside information. We have a long way to go in dealing with inside threats.
“On Tuesday, we arrested 14 suspects for illegal mining in the Roodepoort area. We are here again today to repeat our operation.
“Earlier this week, in another similar operation in the Cleveland area, we arrested 15 (illegal miners).”
Mawela said the operation, even though it did not yield many arrests, was effective as it disturbed their operations.
He said he was concerned as the illegal miners were now hiring TLBs to make their operations appear professional.
“In George Goch, we arrested the owner of a TLB, thinking he was involved in illegal mining. However, on further investigation, we realised that this person was conducting a legitimate business transaction.
“The owner of the company said he was shocked that his equipment was used by illegal miners.”
According to the police, they have arrested 886 people for various crimes through Operation Shanela.
The Star