Illegal miners face deportation
Fourteen foreign nationals face deportation following their arrest for alleged illegal mining activities in the Free State on Friday.
Welkom tactical response team officers were on routine patrol when they “noticed a group of illegal miners at St Helena plant mine in Welkom”, spokesman Captain Stephen Thakeng said in a statement.
The suspects, 12 Lesotho nationals and two Zimbabweans, aged between 18 and 42, were arrested. They would face deportation because none of them could provide legal documents to be in South Africa.
They would appear in the Welkom Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The home affairs department had been consulted to assist with deportation, Thakeng said.
Welkom acting policing cluster commander Brigadier Mzondi Mojafi said illegal mining was “really a concern in Goldfields, as mines are losing a lot as a result of this gesture, so we regard this arrests as a breakthrough”.
“This will also decrease other crimes, like murder, because these zama-zamas [illegal miners] fight for territory to mine illegally and which led to fatal shooting incidents in Matjhabeng,” Mojafi said.
ANA