The cancer of illegal sand mining continues to fester and spread under the blind eye of government.
In the dark underworld of illegal sand mining, it is common knowledge that government is not policing the industry properly and operators are known to be slippery to pin down and confidently apply violent tactics to protect their lucrative operations from competitors and law enforcement.
Jonny Moodley’s company, Trisand, operates in the Umvoti River and he recently visited the Courier to report alleged ongoing trespassing and intimidation against him by a neighbouring sand miner and his cronies who have also made death threats against Trisand and its employees.
Moodley also supplied the Courier with an unverified list of illegal sand miners and companies that keep the trade alive by buying sand from unlicensed suppliers.
“A lot of money changes hands,” said Moodley, alleging that authorities accepted bribes to turn a blind eye.
But without proof, these allegations of pay-offs are just theories.
He said the trespassers accessed their site, a short distance downstream from the Umvoti Water Works, by going through his site because they have been denied access through the town bordering both sites.
Moodley said when he put a fence around his site, the trespassers flattened the fence with nine trucks and threatened his staff at gun point.
Moodley provided proof of a few court orders, banning trespassers from setting foot on his site and the case he opened against the said operator who flattened Moodley’s fence.
In spite of all the action happening right under the authorities’ noses, very few operators ever get convicted in court.
The department of water and sanitation’s (DWA) deputy director of the KZN compliance unit, Zanele Mabuza, said a lack of cooperative governance was the reason for so many illegal operations flourishing in South Africa.
“Prospective operators apply for mining rights from the mineral resources department (DMR) for the sand and once they get the licence, they go ahead and mine without applying for any of the other required licences,” she said.
Mabuza said the DMR regularly neglected to inform applicants of the clause in their mining licence contract that stated that they still needed to apply for, among others, a water licence from the DWA and a licence from the environmental affairs department (DEA) for the riparian zone (trees on the banks), to be fully compliant with the law.
Moodley claims to be fully compliant with the law but according to Mabuza, Moodley’s Trisand is one of the six operators that have been issued directives (meaning they are non-compliant with all required legislation) during the DWA’s recent province wide enforcement blitz .
Member of the provincial legislature, representing the DA, Ann McDonnell, blamed governmental incompetence for the ongoing illegal sand mining on the Dolphin Coast.
“Government pays its own people to do environmental impact assessments (EIA’s),” said McDonnell.
She further said judges were supposed to check that court orders were followed up on.
Local environmentalist, Simon Bundy, who has in the past been involved in many court cases against illegal sand miners, said he believed South Africa needed an environmental court to bring these thugs to book.
He said currently it is easier for judges to understand the political side rather than the environmental side of a case.
According to McDonnell the best thing to do was to keep sending the Green Scorpions out.
She said she believed in the analogy of water dripping on a stone, that eventually made a hole, and said that through persistence, things would eventually change.
