On Friday morning, the Springs police destroyed piles of illegal mining equipment seized during operations at the Gugulethu and Everest informal settlements and Daggafontein to address the illegal mining activities.
The Ekurhuleni East District officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lusha Govender, led the disposal of the illegal mining equipment.
Springs SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Themba Tshabalala said they destroyed the mining equipment so that it did not find its way back into the community.
“The disposal means the items could also not be recycled,” said Tshabalala.
The SAPS took the illegal equipment to a local scrap metal dealer.
The weight of the destroyed items, ranging from phendukas, hammer crushers, pot crushers, and a generator to other mining equipment, has not yet been confirmed.
The crackdown followed a joint operation that the Ekurhuleni District conducted on August 24 and 28 at the Gugulethu and Everest informal settlements to curb illegal mining activities in the Springs region.
The joint operation aimed to disrupt illegal mining, arrest illegal miners, identify and process undocumented persons, and confiscate mining equipment and implements.
As a result, the SAPS arrested five illegal miners and two illegal immigrants.
Tshabalala emphasised that they were determined to eradicate illegal mining through continued disruptive operations in affected areas of the community.
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