Florida Police host district Okae Molao focusing on illegal mining and illegal immigrants
Operation spreads focus wide aiming at Jerusalema, Fleurhof, Rand Leases, and Robertville.
A dedication to law enforcement has no end date.
Florida Police continued their relentless monitoring of the precinct’s most prevalent crimes with a district Okae Molao Operation on April 8. Roodepoort Police Station Commander, Brigadier Irene Sekwakwa served as Operational Commander leading 22 police officers, 18 Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers, eight immigration officers as well as 10 private security and Community Police Forum members.
After an Easter prayer and strategic briefing, the various teams moved to the informal settlement, Jerusalema. Captain Louis Jooste led one convoy into what was the main entrance of the old Roodepoort Rugby Club grounds. Dwellings sit on the elevated embankment on the edge of Albertina Sisulu Road, shielding the view of the inside from the main road. As one enters, dwellings sprawl from the old clubhouse toward the Roodepoort CBD but the sports field still serves its purpose, albeit with a driveway running diagonally across.
Also read: Illegal mining activity negatively impacts Roodepoort substations
The convoy enters the settlement aiming for the portion between the field and Westlake Road while a second team enters Reid Road across from the Hamberg municipal depot. At the first site of police vehicles, most adult males turn and sprint for an exit. As officers give chase, some residents disappear into the fields toward Main Reef Road while others take their chance in the narrow partitions, scaling the wire fences and sliding across tin roofs.
Also read: Officials continue to root out illegal mining in Roodepoort
The police regather and begin looking for signs of illegal activity. Offenders could be pointing a firearm at authorities from any corner so to give the officers an accurate overlay of the terrain, a drone manned by Discovery Community Forum’s Lionel Gaffney and Dan McNeil hovers their device above the dwellings, communicating positions via radio. From the sky, Gaffney and McNeil can spot taverns, illegal mining activity, and potential traps.
The police are first directed to an early morning drink spot on the Main Reef Road edge of the settlement. Police round up the owners, scuffle with suspected illegal immigrants, and begin removing the liquor being sold without a license. Officers lead the arrested suspects to the police vans and the confiscated goods are taken to the JMPD truck parked at the Reid Road points of entry.
Over an hour into the operation, police begin going through the illegal mining stands. Two illegal mining pits sit on either side of homes electrified by the City of Johannesburg. The municipality installed electrical connections and water taps on each stand in 2021 and 2022. These services have now been co-opted by illegal miners who run illegal connections from the meters of adjacent stands while using the freely available for the filtration of the ore.
The barren yards of illegal mining stands are dotted with plastic containers filled with rock, littered with watery pits containing pendukas, and stacked with black refuse bins, some still with their original addresses on. Inside the shacks, police search for contraband, destroying headlamps and discarding wiring into the water. After removing anything that could aid the illegal miners in the future, the police load the items into the back of the truck and return them to the station for processing.
The morning is considered a success as two illegally operating taverns was closed with just short of 97 litres of various brands and varieties of alcohol confiscated. On the illegal mining front, police confiscated four Pendukas, two large gas bottles, two electric motors, an almost brand-new generator, various stamping pots, and multiple gardening implements
The afternoon session focused on crime hotspots around Esperanza, Rand Leases, and Fleurhof with random searching of members of the public and the checking of documentation. Random searches totaled 55 individuals and 20 vehicles, yielding the confiscation of 22 small bags of marijuana. Combined with the illegal mining, the police detained 42 illegal immigrants who were all processed by Home Affairs officials at the station.
