Limpopo police have continued their clampdown on illegal mining in the province. Four more people were arrested this week, taking the tally of people arrested in the past two weeks to 52.
Police confirmed that they were on joint operation with departments of home affairs and minerals resources, immigration officials, EMS and Phonenix mine security, at Schilpadnest in Northam, when they arrested these four suspects for possession of minerals, they recovered 1x Scania Interlink truck with double trailers loaded with minerals, truck valued at R900 000.00 and minerals at R170 000.00.
They also recovred the following items; one articulated dump truck valued R1.2 million, two excavator valued R1million, chrome valued R120 000.
The police units involved included the tactical response team, the Hawks, public order police, detectives and explosive units. The suspects will appear before the local magistrate’s court soon. The Police investigations are still continuing.
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe applauded various investigation teams in Limpopo for their outstanding work of arresting the suspects.
“These arrests reflect our commitment in uprooting all illegal mining activities mushrooming in our Province and shall send a strong message to these groupings that the Police will exercise zero tolerance when dealing with illegal mining. The persistent disruptive operations conducted by the South African Police Service in Limpopo against illegal mining activities continue to yield positive results following the arrest of another four suspects aged between 20 and 40,” said Hadebe.
“The suspects were arrested at Schilpadnest, Northam policing area, on Wednesday. Seeing that illegal mining activities have become a frustration to the country, arrests like these should bring comfort to our communities that the Police are capable of dealing with these illegal activities. I therefore commend the police in Northam for these latest arrests which bring the total number of illegal miners nabbed during the past two weeks, to fifty two (52). Others were arrested in Sekhukhune District under Apel and Mecklenburg policing areas.”
Economic development, environment and tourism MEC Thabo Mokone has commended the police for apprehending the 52 illegal miners.
“This will send a strong message to the illegal miners countrywide. We thank the police with their joint operations because this trends affects our economy. We reiterate that Limpopo provincial government led by Premier Mathabatha will leave no stone unturned to curb illegal mining. We also call our communities to become eyes and ears of the police. While they do that they mustn’t take the law into their own hands,” Mokone said.
According to Minerals Council, the estimated annual commercial value of illegal mining and illicit dealings in precious metals is R7 billion.
The latest arrest happen barely a week after both Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha and Mokone called for the police to tighten and intensify their operations as well as ensuring that foreign minister Aaron Motsoaledi is supported to ensure that illegal immigrants must be prevented from illegal mining operations countrywide.
“Our security problems are compounded by the high prevalence of undocumented people in our country. Each time we try to confront this challenge and address the problem, we are accused of being xenophobic. The truth is that we can no longer ignore this challenge. We must support the efforts by Minister Motsoaledi to fix the immigration in the country,” said Premier Mathabatha.
