Four alleged illegal gold miners killed in fight near Graskop
A man has been taken into custody following the discovery of four alleged illegal miners' bodies.
The bodies of whom the police suspect to have been four illegal miners were retrieved by the SAPS from a mineshaft at a gold-mining plant near Graskop yesterday.
Most of the deaths are linked to a fight that broke out in the vicinity of the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates in Dientjie on Saturday May 29 between two rival zama zama groups.
The police were alerted about the incident by another man who had been severely beaten during the fight and was taken to hospital; he also told them where to find the bodies. He has since been taken into custody for his involvement.
A member of the SAPS’ forensic unit told Lowvelder that not all the bodies are believed to have been killed in Saturday’s fight. “Some bodies were already decomposing and had been there for much longer.”
The same source said illegal mining in Dientjie has become a major problem in recent months.
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According to the Institute for Security Studies, there were roughly 30 000 illegal miners in South Africa in 2019. Zama zamas usually do not act on their own but are organised by criminal syndicates.
“The difficulty with catching illegal miners is that they live underground and many of them are not South African citizens.”
The suspect will appear in the Graskop Magistrate’s Court as soon as he recovers from his injuries.
Meanwhile, the police are still looking for others involved in the incident. Anyone with information is urged to phone Det WO Levy Mashilo on 082-663-3931.
