Because the West Rand is such a mineral rich zone, many flock to the area looking for mining work.
This, unfortunately, includes illegal miners. The problem is the danger this kind of unregulated work presents to not just the workers, but also to the community around these makeshift mines.
It’s reported that a system of tunnels or shafts runs underground throughout the West Rand, and one of the entrances to the system is found in Wentworth Park, directly across the road from a number of houses.
Many attempts have been made to remove this problem from the area, but homeowner and Community Policing Forum patroller, Shanilee Jansen, said that it’s nearly impossible to catch any of these ‘zama-zamas’ once they start running into the veld or enter the dangerous and difficult to navigate tunnels.
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Shanilee used to patrol her area on foot, taking her small dogs with her, while her husband was at work.
“It’s been getting worse and I haven’t been able to patrol for over a month,” she said, explaining that the illegal miners are becoming more aggressive and brazen as time goes by. She claimed that, when she still walked the streets, groups of these men would point at her and her dogs and make sexual gestures.
She reported that a group of one to three men stand on a pile of ground right by the entrance to their underground shaft, keeping watch and looking out for police or security teams. If someone undesirable approaches, the men send a signal down to their colleagues to warn them. It was one of these men that, reportedly, called Shanilee over on one of her daily patrols. She approached, as she felt it was part of her job to make sure everything was fine in the area. The man allegedly handed her a R100 note and, in broken English, “He asked me for sex,” she said. It seems that he didn’t really mistake her for a sex worker, because they have grown used to her over the months and know that she lives just across the road.
Shanilee also said there has been an increase of theft of, specifically, gate motors.
“We think they use the batteries for their things underground.”
A fear that she brought up was the thought of them burrowing under their houses as they expand their operations. This might destabilise the ground and create a danger for the housing structures.
Krugersdorp Police’s Colonel Danie Truter told the News they had a large operation a few weeks ago during which they arrested many people on the grounds of illegal gun ownership and illegal immigration. This is, though, a large problem across the entire South Africa, and Colonel Truter reports they are currently working on a new programme which will bring this entire situation under control.
