Flying Squad busts illegal miners

Four illegal immigrants were arrested during an operation that was launched by the SAPS Welkom Flying Squad members during a swoop on illegal mining activities in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality’s Thabong township on Tuesday.

This operation was led by Warrant Officer Jaco van den Berg, and started at 08:00 by targeting the open space sand dunes near G-Hostel.

According to police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Malebo Khosana, when the police approached the sand dunes, hordes of males ran away in different directions.

“The illegal miners, or ‘Zama Zamas’ as they are known by community members, ran into hiding immediately when they saw the Welkom Flying Squad members approaching. This made it difficult for the bulk of them to be arrested and prosecuted accordingly. However, during the raid, police officers managed to arrest a 30-year-old Zimbabwean male with no identity document.

“He was arrested and placed in custody pending his court appearance in the Welkom Magistrates’ Court for possession of gold dust next week. They further arrested three other undocumented persons elsewhere in Thabong as they were patrolling the area. They will also remain under police custody pending their deportation by the home affairs immigration branch.”

Zama Zamas have been giving the Welkom South African Police Service (SAPS) serious problems since early 2007. It has been estimated that there are more than 10 000 illegal citizens in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, who are illegal mining gold in the disused mines in the area.

Most of the Zama Zamas are from Lesotho and Zimbabwe, with some as young as 16 years old. The SAPS have held various operations in an attempt to stop illegal mining.

Khosana said they confiscated equipment used in the illegal processing of gold dust such as a wheelbarrow, gold dust, mills, plastic buckets, plastic baths, wire sieves, spades and gumboots.

  •  
  •  
  •  
Twitt