Just like the systematic corruption at Transnet and Eskom, illegal gold mining in South Africa is criminality on an industrial scale. The problem has recently been highlighted in the standoff between police and zama zamas at Stilfontein, but it has been decades in the making.
It’s been estimated that 40% of all the gold ever mined in the world has come from the Witwatersrand. The private sector took the risks and reaped the rewards that came from producing it. Most of the gold mines were worked out and abandoned in an era before boards of directors worried about social and environmental responsibility. Now the government is stuck with more than 6,000 old mine workings.
At Stilfontein the police aimed to force the illegal miners to the surface by cutting off their supplies. Minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni commented that “we will not send help but smoke them out”.
Yet there was sympathy for the miners from the surrounding community, which sees them more as Robin Hoods than as violent gangsters. A law enforcement operation suddenly became a humanitarian crisis as NGOs demanded to be allowed to supply food and water to those hiding underground.
Dealing with the issue is not a job for the police only but also for much of the government. And the private sector, created by gold mining, has a duty to help sort out this evil legacy.
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