Mogomotsi Mogodiri
Pretoria - The horrific criminality and terrorism in and around mining towns that culminated in the gruesome gang rapes of eight young South African women allegedly by illegal foreign nationals from Lesotho, is a microcosm of a serious threat to our economy, national security and territorial integrity.
Communities are under siege by armed bandits, some of whom are fugitives from justice in their countries including Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. There are also disturbing reports of the involvement of some Nigerian nationals through an alleged music production company that has mysteriously and inexplicably disappeared from the radar.
The might of our state is not felt by these criminals who brazenly brandish arms of war while threatening, intimidating, raping, shooting, maiming and killing South Africans and plundering our mineral resources and damaging our infrastructure.
This criminality and terrorism happens even in broad daylight, with law-enforcement agencies either unable or unwilling to act, for whatever reasons including inadequate resources, or due to corruption and other malfeasance.
The media have been awash with stories describing the horrendous acts of criminality and violence visited on vulnerable and defenceless communities. We are told those perpetuating these heinous crimes are zama zamas (illegal miners) who are hustling for a living.
What we are experiencing with these mainly illegal immigrants is pure criminality, banditry and economic sabotage, some of the artisanal and small-scale mining notwithstanding.
Furthermore, a significant number of them have entered our country illegally, and that constitutes a crime as per our immigration laws. They have also occupied disused mining compounds and other land including active mine shafts, and forcefully and illegally use these “bases” to launch and execute their criminal activities that in most cases are violent and lead to destruction of our public and private infrastructure, and even deaths.
While poverty motivates some of these illegal miners, no level of hunger and poverty justifies the threatening, raping and killing of innocent people and looting of our country’s resources.
We are also not told this illicit gold and precious metal trade is driven by criminal syndicates who do not hesitate to do anything and everything including murder, to lay their dirty hands on the loot while evading and/or subverting the law.
This criminality and banditry must not be left unattended to. The entirety of the state needed to have acted and needs to urgently act to nip this criminality and economic sabotage, that has morphed into terrorism, in the bud.
What needs to be done? The starting point must and should be making a proper diagnosis of the problem that we are facing. Like a patient, we need to determine the root cause of the disease, make the prognosis and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
It is incorrect and historical to still believe what we are confronted with is simply an illegal mining problem. This is an economic sabotage scourge, planned, masterminded and orchestrated by vicious, ruthless and greedy criminal syndicates who have roped in innocent and criminally minded runners.
These organised criminal activities have their roots in and their history can be traced to our country’s colonisation.
Current mining legislation including the envisaged amendments aim at regulating artisanal mining but doesn’t tackle illegal mining as there is a huge gap in the legislation (Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 20 of 2002), of not explicitly defining illegal mining. This gap needs to be closed as part of our comprehensive response to the current illegality.
We need decisive action to protect South Africans and our property and inheritance, uphold the law and defend our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Pretoria News