South Africa’s president has ordered thousands of military personnel to assist in a nationwide operation against illegal mining, an activity that is estimated to cost the country billions of dollars each year.
The president’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya announced on Thursday that 3,300 army personnel would partner with police in “an intensified anti-criminality operation against illegal mining across all provinces”.
The project will continue until April 2024 as a component of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “Operation Prosper” to establish law and order, he added.
In the past, Ramaphosa had deployed the army to the Western Cape province in 2019 to tackle gang violence as part of the same operation.
Illegal gold mining has been a constant risk in South Africa for decades, with poverty, unemployment and crime driving the underground industry. This activity has hurt the country’s investment and reduced the profits of mining companies, say representatives of the mining industry.
Informal miners have been nicknamed “zama zamas” – a Zulu term for other people who try their luck – because they threaten their lives in disused mines and rudimentary tunnels, dug into the ground without protective measures.
In May, a fuel explosion killed some 31 miners working illegally in the town of Welkom, their bodies trapped underground. Recovery efforts have been thwarted by high levels of methane at the mine and the risk of further explosions.
In July, 17 people, plus three children, were killed in Angelo Tivani, a settlement of about 200 citizens on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
There are an estimated 6,000 abandoned gold mines in the country and environmentalists have warned that commercial mining has left a legacy of poverty and fitness in nearby areas.
Informal mining has also been blamed for rising gang violence and internecine wars as would-be miners compete for digging sites. The Institute for Safety Studies estimates that at least “30,000 illegal miners work in and around thousands of active and disused mines across South Africa. “
The mining black market is also a challenge for legally operated mines, costing them up to 7 billion rand ($376 million) a year, according to the South African Minerals Council.
The activity also causes South Africa’s economy to lose out on tens of billions of rand in export earnings, taxes and royalties, the council estimates.