Mogale City’s Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) responsible for Public Safety, Francis Makgatho alongside senior police officials and other law enforcement agencies recently led the multi-disciplinary Operation Fiela sweep in Rietvallei, Azaadville and other parts of Kagisio.
According to Mogale City’s communications officer Refilwe Mahlangu, the operation is aimed at clamping down on business compliance, illegal hawking, the sale of counterfeit goods, and other areas focussing on illegal mining around Mogale City.
Since the president’s deployment of the South African Defence Force at illegal mining hotspots around the country, Operation Fiela brought great results as over 50 illegal miners and 10 undocumented foreign nationals were arrested during the intense and risky operation in Mogale City recently.
The operation kicked off at the Luipaardsvlei Landfill Site which has been a hotspot for illegal miners’ territory fights and the sourcing of protection fees from over 150 waste reclaimers and others using and working within the vicinity of the landfill site. This subsequently affected waste removal services as municipal trucks could not access the dangerous landfill site.
Mahlangu also confirmed that, in its efforts to clamp down on illegal mining taking place within the landfill site, the municipality brought in a tractor-loader backhoe (TBL) to fill up a large open case hole meant for further operations. The TLB was also brought in to destroy over 50 phendukas which is a man-made machine used to rotate soil until gold is extracted and it is commonly used by illegal miners.
The operation continued to various parts of Reitvallei where residents also assisted operation members in identifying houses where illegal miners (zama zamas) were hiding and operating.
“This not only a sign that community members are fed up with being terrorised by the gun-wielding zama zamas but that illegal mining is an unpleasant scourge that was left unaddressed for too long,” Mahlangu said.
Makgatho applauded the success of the operation to Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens, Gauteng Traffic Department, local police, Mogale City’s Wardens and Kagiso police’s Community Policing Forum.
