It has always been understood that police are there to uphold the law of the land, but when it comes to illegal mining, the law of the land seems to be in limbo.

Ten years ago, Mining Weekly had headlines about London- and Johannesburg-listed gold junior Pan African Resources’s appeal to the South African government for assistance after 13 deaths related to illegal mining at the Consort underground gold mine, in Barberton.

In the same year, 2009, Mining Weekly carried the report that ‘dirty money is coming in and clean gold is going out’, again quoting Pan African, which was battling illegal mining in Mpumalanga. Interpol was involved, because the money was leaving South Africa to fund international terrorism and human trafficking.

In June 2009, we reported that 91 illegal miners that lost their lives after a fire broke out underground in a disused section of Harmony Gold Mining’s Eland shaft, in the goldfields of the Free State. The tragedy brought the issue under the spotlight and then newly appointed Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu emphasised the need for all stakeholders to intensify the fight against illegal mining.

The courts began viewing illegal mining as a crime and not just trespassing. But all that has happened is that illegal mining has intensified. Last month, at the Putfontein highway offramp on the East Rand, a motorist couple travelling in a car that ran out of petrol were brutally murdered in cold blood. The only conclusion that security forces could come to was that they had been gunned down by illegal mining zama-zamas who are active in that area.

Last week, the mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, was forced to close a road on the West Rand, owing to the dangers posed by illegal mining activities in the Roodepoort area.

Police seem fearful of zama-zamas. Again, ten years ago, Pan African Resources reported that police were refusing point-blank to pursue illegal miners into mines.

Reports emanating from the Carletonville area, where 44 deaths have taken place within the illegal mining space, state clearly that police simply stand by and watch as illegal miners with illegal weaponry, as distinct from unlicensed weaponry, occupy areas.

In a case in which concerned taxpaying and law-upholding members of private-sector security firms resorted to firing warning shots into the air, police then took action to confiscate the weapon from the professional guard, whose job it is to see that illegal miners do not enter operating mines that are paying money into the fiscus.

Paying that money does not buy police protection for these operations. Instead, the private sector is forced to pay twice – first in taxes to the State and then in fees to hired security firms.

This is a massive problem that is prevalent throughout the African continent and needs a holistic solution. The procedure is in need of a clearly enunciated enforcement strategy.

Mining Weekly would suggest that special well-trained police units be developed, with full authority to pursue and with the underpinning of intense training to know exactly how to lower risk for themselves and maximise risk for the illegal miners.