SOWETAN | Deal with zama zamas

And the bodies keep piling up.

That’s the story of zama zamas, bands of illegal miners, mostly from neighbouring countries and predominantly it appears, Lesotho nationals who carry out their criminal activities with gay abandon and apparently licensed to kill. 

Other nationalities, namely Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and South Africans are also heavily involved and have indeed come out in the wash in police investigations time and again.

This week opened with news of the discovery in Riverlea, southern Johannesburg, of five bodies of men believed to be from outside the borders of this country. The deaths come just barely a month after 30 bodies of the illicit miners were at the bottom of a shaft of a disused mine in Welkom, Free State.

The nonchalant manner in which the deaths are mentioned, even by authorities, speaks to the levels we have plunged in this lawlessness. Any normal society, let alone government, would have been moved by now to deal once and for all with this endemic problem that is threatening to spill over into being a societal norm.

It may well feel like that for the community of Riverlea, and perhaps many others affected by zama zamas, who have become more than a nuisance. Law abiding citizens have been left on their own against thugs given to slaughter people at a whim.

The zama zama problem has exposed the soft underbelly of a government seemingly too scared to act decisively in the interest of the security and territorial integrity of the republic. What country regards as normal bands of heavily armed foreigners fighting to the death over its resources while virtually nothing meaningful is done about it?

As is his wont, police minister Bheki Cele resorted to belting out sound bites about what the police will do to deal with the problem. His utterances and actions in deploying a few extra officers to Riverlea, or any other area caught in the zama zama wars, is tantamount to applying band aid to a gaping wound, oozing a flood of blood.

It is clear the zama zama problem needs a holistic approach from all government departments concerned, from policing to effective border control and everything in-between.

Cele and the police will roll into town while the zama zamas know better to move to another area to continue doing what they do. Bizzarely, Cele has announced, the absurdity lost to him, that he had spoken to his Lesotho counterpart about the problem.

It is nothing short of abdicating his and the state’s responsibilities and outsourcing them to a neighbour. It is obvious the small army helping itself to what is left of the gold in disused mines are using illegal firearms. What are the police doing about it?

What self-respecting country would unashamedly negotiate with such thugs when all that is needed is enforcement of the law? That, Mr Minister, is no matter for negotiations while a community such as Riverlea continues to live in fear, and the bodies pile up.