A group of residents of the area, who did not want to be named, said a climate of fear exists since the groups of Basotho, Zimbabwean and Mozambican illegal miners started searching for gold beneath the land upon which the settlement stand
Community members said their area has become a war zone and claimed that crime has increased in the area since the illegal miners arrived.
They have also accused the police of failing to control the situation.
The residents recently invited the police to a public meeting in the informal settlement, where the issue of crime connected to the illegal mining activity was raised.
According to residents, they have asked the police to ensure that the miners are removed, since they are apparently responsible for criminal activities.
“They come here to rob and rape people; they break into people’s shacks to steal belongings and they will shoot anyone if the are found inside a shack,” said one of the residents, who added that the miners are now also targeting spaza shops that close late.
The Boksburg SAPS’s Lieut Col Khumbulani Ndaba confirmed that police have met with the residents, to discuss the crime situation.
“We have undertaken to step up patrols, especially in the hotspots, and to conduct regular raids on the affected areas, including the disused mine shafts in their policing precinct.
“We take this matter very serious and we are following up on the information supplied by residents,” said Ndaba.
He added that, a few days after the meeting with residents was held, police conducted a raid on illegal miners and mining equipment was confiscated.
The operation netted five illegal immigrants, along with several suspects connected to drug-related crimes, theft, possession of dangerous weapons, common robbery and attempted rape.
Illegal shebeens were also closed down.
However, residents in the area feel that the police’s intermittent raids on illegal mining are not enough.
“These people are heavily armed; they fear no one and the police are seemingly powerless to stop them,” said a concerned resident, who also asked to remain anonymous because he feared he could be targeted by the miners.
”All we want is for the government to deploy soldiers to deal with this problem.”
According to the source, a man clad in a traditional Basotho blanket recently walked into one of the foreign-owned shop, filled his bag with groceries and exited the shop without paying.
A security guard apparently tried to arrest him but, another man, presumed to be the robber’s countryman, threatened to shoot the security guard. The robber was set free.
Ndaba confirmed this business robbery.
It is also alleged a turf war among the three different heavily armed national gangs exists, putting residents’ lives at stake.
Residents claimed that the BaSothos control the Angelo mine shaft, and they often prevent the other nations from working there, which often end up in dangerous and bloodier battles.
The Advertiser has learned in retaliation, the Zimbabwean and Mozambican miners would sometimes wait in ambush next to the shaft and when the BaSothos come out of the shaft they are shot at and robbed.
In efforts to stop illegal mining below their property, a team of Living Africa employees closed the narrow hole that gives access to the abandoned mine shaft in Angelo informal settlement, in October, 2013.
They put concrete barriers to shut and seal the hole at the disused shaft, but it only took the miners a few hours to tunnel under the concrete to access the shaft.
The problem of illegal mining is widespread across Boksburg and surrounding areas.
Early last year, an illegal miner, who hails from Lesotho, fell about 250m down an abandoned mineshaft, located next to the traffic light, corner of Main Reef and Wit Deep roads.
Also in January last year, a 24-year-old Slovo informal settlement man, who hails from Lesotho, died after he was swallowed by a pit, while scavenging scarp metals from a disused mine shaft.
Residents of Rosedene have expressed their concerns over the danger that the illegal miners on the piece of land, between Main Reef Road and Biddulph Street, poses to the inhabitants of the area.
In a crime operation held in 2013, Reiger Park police officers arrested 18 illegal miners at an abandoned mineshaft in Knights.
-@FanieFLK
Also read:
Eighteen foreigners arrested for illegal mining
Abandoned shafts closed to prevent illegal mining
Illegal mining cause of concern
Residents cry foul over illegal mining in Rosedene
