Calls for crackdown on illegal mining in Gauteng after gas leak claims 17 lives

The Gauteng provincial legislature’s portfolio committee on community safety has called for the eradication of illegal mining, which it says amounts to economic sabotage. 

This follows the deadly incident which claimed the lives of 17 people who inhaled nitrate oxide gas at the Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg.   

“Illegal mining has brought enormous and devastating challenges to maintaining the rule of law in the province,” said the committee's chair, Bandile Masuku.

He said the committee noted allegations that the gas cylinder that caused the incident was part of an illegal mining operation carried out by zama-zamas in the area.

He said the province has over the years witnessed the “senseless loss of innocent lives” at the hands of illegal miners and “now calls for law enforcement agencies to develop dedicated and specialised units that will see the complete eradication of illegal mining in Gauteng”. 

He said, “The committee calls on community members of the Angelo informal settlement and all other citizens to refrain from engaging in this unsafe and illegal mining.”

Masuku said the committee called on the private security industry and community policing forums to continue working with the police to fight illegal mining.

He said the committee awaits a detailed report from police in the province that will “give an account of what happened and what is being done to eradicate illegal mining in Gauteng”.

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