Community on fiery rampage against zama zamas, as leaders play politics

A day after Gauteng premier David Makhura said he would return to Kagiso near Krugersdorp and do a door-to-door search for illegal spazas, people from the nearby Mohlakeng area of Randfontein went after people they believed were zama zamas.

The Citizen yesterday visited Mohlakeng where shacks belonging to alleged illegal miners, or zama zamas, were torched by angry community members on Monday.

Fears of xenophobic attacks

A Lesotho national who did not want to be named said he feared this had turned into xenophobic attacks on the Basotho, as they are alleged to be the illegal miners.

“We condemn what they did but when they got here on Monday, they burnt every Lesotho national’s belongings. They did not care if you were zama zama or not – as long as you were a Lesotho national, they burnt your belongings,” he said.

“Some of us work in construction and we are not zama zamas. We fear even walking around the area now. You might get burnt because you are from Lesotho. This is very painful; all my belongings and passports were burnt. We have zama zamas who are Zimbabwean and Mozambican, but they were not targeted.”

He said he has been trying to locate his brother since Monday.

“I found his shack and belongings burnt to ashes. I have tried to call everyone but no one knows anything. I do not know where he is or if he is dead.

“He has a family he sends money to and I do not know what I am going to tell them.”

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Political analyst Xolani Dube said Makhura’s remarks about the Gauteng Township Economic Development Bill favouring South Africans were not xenophobic but merely an attempt to salvage the ANC. The party faces a mammoth task of restoring public trust amid declining electoral support ahead of the 2024 national elections.

Spaza shops

Speaking to agitated residents about illegal miners in Kagiso on Monday, Makhura said on Thursday next week, they would embark on a door-to-door campaign in spaza shops around Kagiso to assess the level of compliance and ensure locals benefitted from the township economy.

Makhura said they would not allow the Bill to be “hijacked” by foreign nationals.

“I want to come back and deal with the issue of spaza shops operating in the townships that are ruining our economy, the ones that are not legal,” he said.

“If you have a spaza shop that doesn’t operate according to the law, we will shut it down; we will be back with [the department of] home affairs and Sars [the SA Revenue Service],” he said.

He promised that when a citizen needed assistance from the municipality or the department of economic development, they would be assisted.

On the zama zama issue, Makhura said South Africa could not have the country taken over and residents left helpless. Dube said Makhura was saying this to sound politically correct.

“These are people of political correctness. They go and pacify people. Them shutting down spaza shops is not going to happen. They do [not] have that capacity and there’s no political will [for it].”

He said the comments showed the ANC did not have vision and did not take ordinary South Africans seriously.

“There’s no such thing as a township economy and we know since Parks Tau took over as an MEC for economic development, they have been doing a lot of gimmicks around the issue.

“These people have failed, they are not going to do these things. Parks Tau is a man of low self-esteem and he has got no energy. He is not going to do this.”

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