LOCAL

The African National Congress (ANC) has vowed to highlight and address challenges posed by illegal miners also known as zama zamas.

The ANC will be staging a protest at the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court west of Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.

The party is calling for illegal mines to be shut down following the arrest of more than 80 people who are allegedly illegal miners.

They were arrested during a police operation following the gang rape of eight women at an abandoned mine in the Krugersdorp area.

SABC News reporter Hasina Gori was in Krugersdorp for the suspects’ first court appearance:

Over the weekend, the ANC held its policy conference which indicated that it wants tighter citizenship laws to keep out undeserving foreigners and also called on its branches to take a lead in helping communities report illegal foreigners to the authorities.

ANC National spokesperson Pule Mabe says, “As the ANC we will be at the Krugersdorp police station joining the picket lines together with the communities of West Village. What we hope to achieve really is to highlight concerns around this illegal mining and even the outrageous rage that we have witnessed over the past week. We also want to put pressure on law enforcement agencies to be able to, mete out any judgment deserving of the crime committed by those that roped these innocent young women.”

“We hope that our government will be waiting with the necessary speed to deal with this issue of illegal mines [and] abandoned mining dumps. We have got to tighten our migration [immigration] laws to make sure that we are able to deal with the illegal immigrants much more decisively,” adds Mabe.

The audio below is the full interview with Pule Mabe:

MEANWHILE

More than 40 illegal miners arrested in Gauteng’s West Rand during sting operation

More than 40 illegal miners have so far been arrested during a high-level multidisciplinary operation, targeting illegal mining operations on Gauteng’s West Rand.

The operation is being spearheaded by Police Minister Bheki Cele, together with Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Elias Mawela and the Hawks.

Police raid Krugersdorp:

This follows the brutal gang rape of eight women in West Village, Krugersdorp, on Thursday last week. The women who were part of a production crew, shooting a music video, were attacked by a gang of men believed to be illegal miners.

The police’s Colonel Dave Davis elaborates, “We planned this operation today because of all the zama zamas that are taking over the West Village and the region of Krugersdorp and we arrested more or less 42 people today. We seized about 32 cell phones. What we see here is gold bearing material that they steal from the mines and then they wash it down on tables and clothes and then they wash the clothes and find the gold material and then you get your gold and it’s then sent into the market.”

Suspects in rape incident appear in court

The case against 81 suspects who were arrested in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg over the weekend, has been postponed to Wednesday.

The suspects appeared in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

Many of them were nabbed on allegations of illegal mining, possession of explosives, stolen goods, illegal firearms and ammunition as well as contravention of the Immigration Act.

Out of the 81 suspects, 20 of them were juveniles.

According to police the gun-wielding attackers gang raped the women and robbed them of their belongings.

Meanwhile, outside court – scores of GBV activists and members of various political parties gathered to voice their concerns over the incident.

 

Source: SABC news