It will take at least 17 years for the government to close all the shafts that have been left open by previous owners. 

This was revealed by mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday as he briefed parliament on measures taken to address illegal mining in the country.

Mantashe and his colleagues in cabinet, police minister Bheki Cele and home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi, have been called to address the NCOP on what is being done to deal with illegal mining scourge.

Mantashe said his department has an allocation of R140m a year which is given to its company, Mintek, to close open holes which are being exploited by illegal miners. Mintek is currently closing 40 shafts a year and over the past three years it has closed 135 holes. Of the 135, 52 were in the West Rand alone.

“At the rate we are going, it is going to take us 17 years to close the holes,” he said.

Mantashe said illegal mining has been taking place in other provinces besides Gauteng but less noise was made on the incidents there.

“There has been series of deaths in Orkney [North West]. A month ago, 95 illegal miners were trapped underground in Orkney and five died in this incident. There was no big noise,” he said.

He added that illegal mining is an economic sabotage which wages war on the economy. Therefore, he said, it requires a specialised unit to treat it as such.

On July 28, eight women were raped allegedly by illegal miners in West Village, Krugersdorp. Some of the women were raped by as many as 10 men. The women were on the mine dump to shoot a music video when they were attacked by armed men.

This horrific act has raised a sharp focus on illegal mining with communities calling for police to be visible in areas where zama-zamas operate.

“A company from Krugersdorp called Mogale Gold Mine, which was part of Mintails, was given a licence to process those dumps. It got liquidated and Mogale Gold is on business rescue. Pan African Resources is trying to acquire Mogale Gold which goes with a liability of R300m which should be part of the deal,” Mantashe explained the ownership of the mine dump where the incident happened.

Cele told the NCOP that the main province where illegal mining takes place are Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, Free State and, in the minimal, Northern Cape.

“They will argue that it is caused by unemployment…but in essence it is run by syndicates and those syndicates are putting a lot criminality activities around [areas affected by illegal mining],” Cele said.

dlaminip@sowetan.co.za