What looked like normal informal residences turned out to be furtively disguised ‘workshops’ and gold ore storage areas for illegal miners on the West Rand

Discovery of this only took place after the South African Police Service on the West Rand, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the City of Johannesburg Infrastructure Protection Unit, City Power, Joburg Water and the Joburg Roads Agency were forced to visit Matolesville, in Roodepoort, to stop rampant electricity and water theft in the area.

As it turned out, the illegal zama-zama miners had been helping themselves to the city’s water, electricity and even refuse bins – water and power to process the illegal gold ore, and refuse bins to store the stolen ore.

It all became so blatant that large numbers of empty trucks had to be brought in and all of them left heavily loaded with zama-zama mining equipment and structures that had been hidden in places thought to be occupied by innocent residents, but which were the workshops of large numbers of illegal miners and which contained deep holes and bucketloads of raw ore.

As it turns out, West Rand gold mining companies were correct to draw the line on the zama-zama menace last week through the columns of Mining Weekly ahead of all this.

Had they not made public their letter of complaint to Gauteng provincial commissioner of police Lieutenant-General E Mawela, the police action on the West Rand might not have been as prompt.

The letter followed illegal mining-related violence, enforced road closures and zama-zamas attacking mine employees and private security personnel.

The big complaint was that police seemed to do nothing to stop the zama-zamas and the perception in the minds of many was that the police were reluctant to help legitimate citizens and their taxpaying businesses.

Many of those complaining have been forced to spend large sums of money on private security and were horrified about police confiscating the legal and licensed firearms, and leaving zama-zamas to rule the roost.

But, while the latest police action on the West Rand removes that perception, woeful occurrences are taking place at Barberton Mines, in Mpumalanga.

London- and Johannesburg-listed Pan African Resources sent pictures to Mining Weekly showing how criminals are using violence to extort outside its Barberton operations.

The gold mining company has been forced to obtain court interdicts and benefit from the support of the South African Police Service public order policing division to quell protests, protect employees and preserve mine assets.

A swift end must be put to ongoing disruptions that leave burn-out truck wrecks sprawled across busy streets. Enough is enough. This is anarchy and results in lost production that has a detrimental effect on the local economy, the surrounding communities and the South African fiscus.