After being chased off the farm by police, the pipe diggers gathered outside and said they are not going anywhere. Even though they seem to know that this practice is against the law, they want the police and municipality to allow them to finish digging up the remaining pipe. –
Hundreds of people from the Ladysmith area, as well as the Free State and Johannesburg, gathered to dig up disused cast iron piping on a private farm just outside Ladysmith on the R103 Harrismith road. They intended to sell what they had dug up to a specific scrap yard in Illing Road. –
Khumbuzile Nkabinde, who is a mother of two living in Peacetown, says she has spent days and nights digging up piping in order to make money to help support her family and raise her children. “My 12-year-old daughter needs to go back to school. We came here on Friday and have been sleeping here since then,” says the woman.
Speaking to a Ladysmith Gazette journalist, she explained that they cannot leave what they have dug up because it was a long weekend and they need to sell the piping immediately.
“It has been a couple of months now that this has been going on,” added another digger, Themba Hlatshwayo. He said they had been warned not to go onto the property, but did anyway. “We were told not to go there, but we carried on because we have families to feed and look after. We don’t mean any harm, we just want whatever is left of it (the pipe).” –
The trespassers say they work together as a group and share whatever is made from the sale of the piping. “We can make up to R15,000 in three days if everything goes according to plan,” adds Themba. The diggers hire a bakkie to transport the piping to the scrap yard. –
The owner of the scrap yard in question was in a meeting when approached for comment.
Pipe diggers were seen queuing up at the business on Tuesday, but said they were turned away and told that the business would not buy their ‘loot’. They claim the owner has bought from them in the past.
