South Africa bets on military deployment to crush illegal mining gangs

The World Bank, in a report on the impact of crime on South Africa’s economy published last week, said the “stolen property; protection costs — encompassing security and insurance; and missed economic opportunities” were factors that cost up to 10% of GDP.

Zama zamas have become increasingly common since the 2010s amid the South African mining industry’s decline. Despite the links to organized crime, many of those working as zama zamas today lost their jobs as mining companies shrunk and mines closed down.

Since May this year, more than 4,000 suspects have been arrested across the country on various illegal mining related charges according to the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster, which includes the departments of police, home affairs, and defense. Nearly 3,000 of those arrested came from across Africa, mostly neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Others came from the DR Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda.

Trust in law enforcement to deal effectively with the high levels of crime in South Africa has waned considerably in recent years according to the Human Sciences Research Council, a Pretoria based think-tank. That lack of trust explains communities such as Riverlea protesting over zama zama clashes and the phenomenon of vigilantism in many of South Africa’s poorer areas. People don’t feel the police can help them. It also explains the government’s decision to send in troops.

South Africa’s failure to bolster its crime intelligence services has long been explained as a reason for rising crime. Viewing it through the lens of South Africa’s recent apartheid history, the deployment of the military to police civil issues and crime should also never be encouraged. But, as the World Bank’s research shows, the government needs to do what it can to dismantle criminal networks because they’re a drain on the country’s economy. The Bank’s report states the importance of “tackling the rise in organized crime, which has thrived on the declining capacity of the police and justice institutions and has broad-based effects on economic activity.”

With a crucial election looming next year in which the ruling ANC is in danger of losing its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid, Ramaphosa’s government will be hoping that the troops can tackle the violent crime associated with zama zamas and cut off the supply of money that finances other criminal enterprises.

David van Wyk, the lead researcher for the Bench-Marks Foundation, which studies the impact of mining on communities and the environment, said deploying the military was not the solution to what he said was a mining and economics problem.

“The big industrial mines are no longer viable, they no longer operate so what is to happen to these abandoned mines? They should be repurposed for small and medium scale mining,” he said. “Sending in the army is not going to create jobs or deal with unemployment, poverty and inequality in this country.”

Rethabile Mabita, an immigrant from Lesotho who works as a zama zama on Johannesburg’s West Rand, told Semafor Africa the deployment of the military won’t stop him and other zama zamas from continuing to mine the old and abandoned mines they have been working on.

“We won’t stop, we need to do this job to survive and to feed our families. The police come here every few months and arrest some people and take our equipment. But it doesn’t stop us from doing this work. We need to eat,” he said.