JOHANNESBURG - The country’s mining industry has come into sharp focus this week as the country remembers the 34 miners and 10 others killed a decade ago in Marikana.
In the west of Johannesburg old wounds have reopened for residents who have been desperately seeking government’s intervention to deal with illegal mining and the violent syndicates that control them.
Scores of residents on the West Rand took the law into their own hands in recent days, searching mine dumps and torching houses in a bid to smoke out so-called zama-zamas.
It forced police into action and several government departments to come to the fore in an effort to resolve this years-long crisis.
However, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has seemingly failed thus far to strengthen the regulatory loopholes.
It was only after the gang rape of eight women in Krugersdorp last month that the police finally acted against illegal miners and Parliament’s portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy then visited several abandoned mines that have been sheltering zama-zamas.
The committee's chairperson - Sahlulele Luzipo said the roots of this underworld economy run far deeper than the barren mine shafts and tunnels that have been left unregulated by the department.
“What we discovered was that one of the former officials of the department created the chaos that we are seeing there. He is now a contracted advisor to one of the companies that have been granted the mining rights. We are now investigating whether this issue was not something that was cooked inside.”
The committee will continue its oversight visit on the West Rand on Thursday and is expected to receive feedback from the Department of Energy, the Policing Ministry and details on interventions from the Home Affairs Department.
