Illegal miners lured with false job opportunities

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Arabile, it's over to you.

[00:00:05]Yeah, I thank you so much for that, Valen. And And I think what you what you really highlight is just that crackdown and the necessity there are as we've been speaking to artisanal miners on one end from Willy Masilela's vantage point.

[00:00:17]And of course, from my end trying to speak to the corporates, to the tourists, and even to the South African police who actually join us right now, Brigadier Donald Nhluli, who is the Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson that joins us now as we get to grips with this one.

[00:00:30]Uh but Willy, thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate it. I mean, how difficult is this a situation has it been? It's It's been long-standing has illegal mining in the area impacting companies much like Pan African resources here at the Barberton mine.

[00:00:43]Good morning to you as well as to the viewers. Um yes, indeed. But we need to indicate that um our work uh demands a lot, and hence we do our proper planning. Um we've got our intelligence structure as SSA.

[00:00:59]Um they intelligence from the South African National Defense Force as well as those uh intelligence from our own SAPS. So that they plan, we check as to the areas that are giving us challenges. And also within um the SAPS, we've got various units that are moving forward to ensure that we deal decisively with uh these illegal miners. Um If you like you indicated the mine that we're having here, it's a commercial one. Also with others that um are around the area of Barberton. Um last year we had a massive one where we arrested, I think it was the biggest in the country, where we arrested more than 500 um illegal miners. Because these miners, alongside the commercial one, they go along and and and mine there. So we've got a good relations uh uh with our securities from those mines that are also assisting in ensuring that um we get that information and we move forward and arrest. But what another thing that I can indicate, um Mpumalanga is next to the border of Mozambique and Swaziland, which um if you could have heard from the BMA uh reports, we have you have seen that most of those illegal people come in. And what we have also picked through our intelligence is that some of these miners, they come here being lured to say there is work that is being advertised. Once they come here, they take their um it's either if they are South Africans, they'll take their IDs. If they are foreign nationals, they'll take their passports, which leave them leave them uh stranded and they are forced to mine. So we are working along around the clock um following those places and ensure that we arrest and prosecute.

[00:02:52]>> So that means that Operation Valumngodi, which has been in effect since what, December 2023 at the very least, it still is in effect. But is it still effective in the same way it currently stands? Does it not need a little bit more impetus? Does it need more resources? Does it need more finances?

[00:03:07]Does it need more police officers on the ground? Dare I say, the deployment of the of the defense force to help you?

[00:03:14]Um what I can indicate is that we are we are making an impact. I was just looking at the figures before we take this interview. We we we managed only for last year and and this year we already arrested about 1,000 of of those uh uh illegal miners through Operation Valumngodi. It's making a very huge impact in our province. And um though we cannot say we have enough, um for instance, we we don't have um the deployment of SANDF in our province.

[00:03:46]However, with the team that we are having, we are moving forward. Remember, um the the the SANDF deployment for now is focusing on the the the the problematic uh provinces that there are I think about five. And we are reassessing, the management is reassessing. And if need be, then we'll be happy to have more. But for now, we're doing good. We are having those successes. They are also some recoveries of these pendukas and other equipments that they use, which shows that um indeed we are making an impact. And we also welcome the information that members of the public are bringing forward. If you move forward uh to the areas like Pilgrim's Rest and Sabie, the communities are informing us, are giving us more information, which reinforce the the intelligence information that we are having and we are able to to make some impact out there. And I mean, those are tourist destinations, too, right? Which is impacting a lot on tourism. And we're going to talk about tourism a little bit later on as well. But how much impact does this really have when one considers um that these pendukas, for example, I mean, these these are machines that you'd find are artisanally made, and yet they're still able to to get the job done. Who's supplying them? Do you have any intelligence in that regard? Do you have Because if there's less of that supply, then maybe it does it helps in this uh in in creating less uh zama zamas, for example, as well. Is that not something perhaps of consideration, too?

[00:05:12]Yes, our intelligence structure, I think even yesterday I was discussing it with the acting PC. Um the the they are busy trying to check on the value chain. Because as much as we are making an impact, but we must understand as long as as you still have the market, that there are people who are buying and taking them. Because you must one must ask a question as to where are these minerals going when they mine them from those. So our intelligence are on the ground, and we are hopeful that we'll soon make a very big impact in making sure that we get at the big guns, at those that are at the receiving end and benefiting out of this. So the intelligence indeed, they are on on on that matter, and we are hopeful that we'll report soon like we are reporting on weekly basis on the arrests that we are making.

[00:06:04]>> When you make all those arrests, though, do those mines get closed? Because that becomes the difficult part, right? Is that there are so many mines that have been left open because of the rules prior to 2002, before the uh the the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002. Is that not the difficult part? That you actually have to close these mines, otherwise people just come back.

[00:06:25]Yes, but remember in terms of our mandates, um the uh Department of Minerals and Energy.

[00:06:33]For instance, in the area of eSikhaleni down there around Sabie, um they they they do make make sure that they close on the holes that have Because those are old mines, as you have correctly indicated that tourists like to go that side. Down there around Pilgrim's Rest, those are old mines. So they try to close. However, these guys try to make other holes to try and I think if you remember, I think 2 years back we um rescued a lot of people there, even though unfortunately there were some that had passed away. So after that, there was a closure. But we are working cooperatively with other departments like I indicated the that department to ensure that we don't have they ensure that they close. Very quickly, um is this also true then that some of the tourist sites, whether it be the Sudwala Caves, for example, out in Sabie, out in places like Pilgrim's Rest, where they're using those old mines that are tourist destinations, tourist spots.

[00:07:30]They're no longer active mines, but they're remining those places, too. Is that what what you're also seeing and hearing from your intelligence? Yes, that's one thing that we have focused. I think the residents residents will bear with me and also know that our focus also are around those areas there in in in around the area that you have mentioned, Pilgrim's Rest and the other areas, because they are tourist attraction. And if we have this kind of illegal mining, it will have an impact. So our intelligence also is pointing into that direction, and we are hopeful that with the arrests that are being made, because one thing about illegal mining, you don't have to do it and stop. So we we have got what we call 360, meaning that we come back to the very same area, we arrest, they go, we come again, and ensure that they don't they don't continue to carry out those illegal activities.

[00:08:25]>> to be very interesting. Donald, thank you so much for the time, Brigadier.

[00:08:27]Really appreciate it, actually. My colleague Willy Masilela is actually with a few artisanal miners himself, and perhaps he will be speaking to them in just a moment to get their sense of things.

[00:08:38]Brigadier Donald Nhluli, Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson, joining us then.