City comes down hard on illegal mining activities

27 January 2017

 

The City of Johannesburg is clamping down on illegal mining and the attendant water abuse and electricity theft.

 

This week, City officials from entities such as Johannesburg Water, Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), City Power and Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) – accompanied by members of the South Police Service (SAPS) and Gauteng Traffic – swooped on Matholesville in Roodepoort, a notorious illegal mining hotspot on the West Rand, in a co-ordinated and high-level bid to bring the costly illegal activities to a halt.

Although no illegal miners were found during the visit, officials from the Immigration Unit of the Department of Home Affairs arrested 10 people who were found to have entered the country illegally. The department is now in the process of making arrangements for their deportation.

Cassius MacKay, Manager of JRA’s Infrastructure Protection Unit (IPU), which led the operation, said illegal mining activities wasted huge amounts of water as it was left to run non-stop for 24 hours a day and seven days a week to process the illicitly mined gold, bypassing the City’s water meters.

MacKay said the site visit was a precursor to a law enforcement operation to be undertaken at a date still to be determined.

This is the second time that City entities have visited the illegal mining hotspot to address the scourge. The first time was on 22 December 2016 when officials arrived to raise awareness of the impact of illegal water and electricity use on the City’s overall supply. There is an estimated 2 000 illegal miners, known as zama zamas, in Matholesville alone. Many come from countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

“Our visit to Matholesville in December highlighted the extent of the problem, hence this visit to address the issues of water abuse and electricity theft,” said MacKay.

This week, JMPD and SAPS members demolished a number of James Tables, which are used by the illegal miners to process the gold. Joburg Water cut off water supply to a number of nearby homes because they were helping to provide water to the illegal miners.

“We are happy with the work we have done today. Community members are also impressed. This is not a once-off operation. It is continuous process. We need to keep coming back here until we have achieved the desired results,” concluded MacKay.