The year was 2000 and we were all agog over the Y2K millennium bug. Apparently, the world’s computers would struggle to recognise the triple zeros of the new year and go haywire.
The ATMs would either gobble up your savings or even bless you with undeserved thousands. President Thabo Mbeki was telling us this would be the African century, and the continent would rise. All these predictions came to naught.
The millennium bug failed to upset technology and Africa is still wallowing in underdevelopment despite her precious minerals. Anyway, the same year I was freelancing for a Sunday broadsheet and Phumzile Mlambo-Nqcuka was minerals minister. I was doing an article on illegal miners in Welkom.
The mining bosses knew about these underground gangsters, and a task team was formed to combat the scourge. The employed mineworkers at these shafts avoid the abandoned sections where zama zamas operate. Some mining companies have even banned skaftins underground, ostensibly to prevent their employees from selling food to the illegal guys, who stay underground for weeks and months on end.
The task team clearly failed to deal with the problem and periodically we would read about zama zamas who perished underground after inhaling deadly gases.
The police stay clear, except to retrieve the bodies and repatriate them to their countries of origin. Otherwise it is business as usual, even as communities complain about shootings and other crimes.
The police look the other way whenever warring factions exchange fire on the East Rand, West Rand, Free State Goldfields, Mpumalanga and Carletonville.
On occasion when zama zamas are apprehended, they are charged under the immigration laws and deported, only to return a few days later to dig. It’s a lucrative business, though deadly. The mining companies are not required by law to report the fatalities of illegal miners. In essence, they do not exist unless they perish underground.
That was until last week when blanket-wearing gangsters gang raped eight models during a video shoot near Krugersdorp. Suddenly, the police mustered the courage to combat illegal mining.
With the media in tow, the police top brass raided illegal mining dens.
At the time of writing, none of the suspects had been linked to the rapes, so they will likely be charged with possession of illegal weapons, being in the country illegally and be deported. It’s a treacherous cycle and I doubt the police will maintain their momentum. The task team failed a long time ago.
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