Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - Independent political analyst and Hollywood playwright Gakwi Mashego has called on South African lawmakers to convert illegal miners into professional business owners with mining licences.
According to Mashego, the brutal crimes associated with the so-called zama zamas can only be blamed on the criminalisation of mining activities that involve abandoned mine shafts.
“There is an urgent need to establish a spaza mining regime in order to convert illegal mining into a legitimate business that can open a second economy, create jobs and sustainable livelihoods.
“If this happens, there won’t be a need for dangerous zama zamas to carry deadly weapons because their activities will no longer be attached to criminality.
“The reason you have such a spate of attacks involving armed zama zamas living near mine dumps is that they believe they have to be brutal in order to get people out of their way.
“That’s why some communities report that even the police are afraid of the zama zamas. It is the way syndicates work. They create enough fear so that they can conduct illicit business with minimum police interference.”
Mashego is a published author of several books, a poet and a playwright whose award-winning play, The Last Show, was showcased at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles, California, in the US, in 2016.
The writer said political scenes involving foreign nationals armed with automatic rifles crossing the border into the Free State province undetected by law enforcement was turning South Africa into a “burning Netflix script”.
“Fiction has become reality in that brutal crimes bear the hallmarks of political conspiracy. We hear of armed men going down mine shafts for weeks, but we never get to hear about the buyers of the same mineral products that they extract from the ground.
“Who are these buyers and who is protecting them from being arrested? They are the real gangsters benefiting from the illegal activities because they buy the minerals cheaper and sell them offshore at an exorbitant price,” he said.
Mashego added that South Africans should accept the meaning of “an abandoned mine”.
“The truth is that an abandoned mine means it is no longer going to be used because the mining companies have come to the conclusion that it has become more expensive for them to run the operations for the little gold that remains underneath.
“These companies have rehabilitation funds that we never get to see. Such funds could be used to offset a new economy by properly training young people in mining communities to take over the mines under a spaza mining regime, with some working as certified security guards. Lives would change drastically,” he said.
Mashego provided examples of how decriminalising illegal activities has benefited the economic development of some countries in the past.
“If you look at the rise of some industries across the world, governments decided to decriminalise economic activities that were deemed to be morally wrong.
“For example, the US had banned the sale of alcohol under what was called the Prohibition. Changing those laws resulted in a booming alcohol industry that has boosted the hospitality and entertainment sectors.
“It was illegal to brew your own alcohol in South Africa, especially in black communities, but today they have found ways to issue licences for craft beer breweries and other forms of liquor.
“Crimilising marijuana and sex work have not killed the demand.
“When the government declares something illegal, it doesn’t mean it dies, but it simply goes underground with little regulation and collateral crimes that emerge from it.
“When you legalise, it means there is a regime where you are able to collect taxes. Imagine the taxes that could be collected from spaza mining and how that could contribute to the GDP. Such taxation would flow back into the same communities in terms of government services,” Mashego said.
Illegal mining has become a thorny social issue in South Africa. Hundreds of zama zamas have been arrested this year alone, but the illicit mining activities persist.
Some of the illegal miners have been linked to armed robberies, gang rapes and murder. Others have lost their lives to mob justice as communities grow impatient.
Recently, Police Minister Bheki Cele was asked to consider requesting soldiers to help police deal with the growing unrest relating to the “terror” brought to residents living near closed mines in Gauteng.
According to the Minerals Council South Africa, 70% of all suspects arrested in connection with illegal mining are undocumented foreign nationals from Lesotho.
“Illegal mining activities take place on the surface and underground, and manifest at closed-off mines, abandoned mines and in many cases even at operating mines.
“Illegal miners frequently risk their own health and safety, as well as that of others, by entering mostly abandoned shafts and sometimes operating shafts, travelling as far as 4km underground, where they live for several days at a time.
“Illegal artisanal mining is often organised and conducted by crime syndicates. Illegal miners, known in South Africa as ‘zama zamas’, are often heavily armed and, when trespassing on operating mines, set ambushes and booby traps for employees, security and rival groups of illegal artisanal miners,” reads a report from the council.
Pretoria News