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South African soldiers have dismantled an illegal gold mining operation in a community near Johannesburg and forced some illegal miners to flee and abandon their equipment.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the soldiers dismantled makeshift trenches and removed food supplies and utensils belonging to the miners, along with clothing left behind after the miners fled a site in Randfontein, a city about 40 kilometres west of Johannesburg.
It is illegal to mine without a government licence in South Africa, yet some miners engage in the illicit activity. According to the South African Government, the country has seen an increase in illegal mining, which it estimates is worth more than $4 billion a year just in gold lost to criminal syndicates.
Credit: Bird Agency.
Dozens of abandoned mine shafts line the outskirts of Johannesburg. Illegal mining is rife in the area as heavily armed crime syndicates and informal miners known as “zama-zamas” enter the shafts in search of leftover deposits of gold or other minerals.
Other provinces with abandoned shafts, like the North West and Mpumalanga, have also experienced high levels of illegal mining.
The illicit activity is believed to be controlled by migrants from neighbouring Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.
The South African Government has vowed a crackdown on illegal mining and threatened to deploy soldiers in some of the country’s most crime-ridden areas, including in the Western Cape province.
On Thursday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa noted that the deployment of the troops would take place alongside other measures, such as strengthening anti-gang units and illegal mining task teams.
“The police will also be working with the National Prosecuting Authority on multi-disciplinary task teams to target the leadership, finances, firearms and logistics of these criminal networks,” said Ramaphosa.
