WATCH | ‘Zamimpilo must go, that is not negotiable,’ Riverlea residents tell Cele

Fed-up residents from Riverlea and surrounding areas were on Friday emphatic in their call for the troubled Zamimpilo informal settlement to be demolished if authorities are serious about tackling illegal mining in the area.

Police minister Bheki Cele led an imbizo [meeting] in the area on Friday after protests against illegal mining activities.

Cele was in the area to update residents on efforts by police to tackle illegal mining in affected communities. It comes a week after the bodies of five suspected illegal miners were discovered in the area. Police linked it to fighting between rival illegal mining groups.

More than 100 zama zamas (illegal miners) were arrested by Friday morning as Cele conducted a walkabout in the area, assessing confiscated equipment such as phendukas [handmade gold refining machines], generators and cylinders and getting an update on arrests made.

The minister, along with police officers and city officials, listened as residents vented their frustration at the ongoing illegal mining activities in their communities and the lack of assistance from authorities.

Scores flocked to the Riverlea recreation centre to take part in the engagement. The area is known as an operating site and home for zama zamas who are allegedly terrorising communities. 

A young woman from Zamimpilo, who gave her name as Noxolo, cried about the level of crime in the informal settlement as she pleaded with the minister to help them get houses.

“There's so much crime in Zamimpilo, we can't sleep from all the gunshots going off. We're asking the department of housing to please give us houses. Even if you get rid of illegal mining, it makes no difference because we stay in shacks that will collapse from all the holes the zama zamas have dug out.

“All we want are houses, we have nothing, not even services. So we are begging Cele, please talk to the department for us,” she said.

Yvonne Mgidlana, who stays in Riverlea Ext 3, praised Cele for his presence in the area after last week's bloodshed but questioned how long this would last. She said schoolchildren were often exposed to the illegal miners' activities just behind the primary school.

“But what I want to emphasise is this, Zamimpilo must go. That is not negotiable. If there are South Africans there, human settlements must find a place for them. We are not going to solve anything if Zamimpilo is still there. 

“When they [illegal miners] are killing each other, they run into our houses and into our yards. We are not safe in our own yards. Another thing, there's a gas pipe there, what is going to happen to us if they disturb it,” she asked to rousing applause.

Other residents also praised Cele for his reaction to their cries but criticised police for their poor performance. Many blasted the local police station for being ineffective and told the ward councillor, who came under fire as well, to “pull up your socks” and take residents seriously.

The imbizo also saw a memorandum handed to the minister from the joint committee for ward 68, which covers Riverlea, Pennyville, Crown, Industria and Zamimpilo, among other areas.

The memorandum was read out by Bishop Anthony Sherman and was addressed to Cele, mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe and home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi. 

In it, communities said they had “registered complaints and reports on the lack of service by the relevant authorities under the auspices of the above-mentioned ministers” for the past 10 years to no avail.

“We hereby request the ministers to earnestly note and address our requests pertaining to the illegal mining and criminality emanating from the Zamimpilo informal settlement, which is about 90% occupied by zama zamas,” it read.

These include calls to the police and army to continue with their operations “until such time as the area has been stabilised and pending finalisation of other stakeholders' long-standing remedial action”, for home affairs and human settlements to relocate South African residents and remove illegal immigrants and deport them, and for the department of mineral resources and energy to monitor the rehabilitation of disused mines in the area.

Cele earlier spoke about the “broader plan” the government was working on to deal with the issue of illegal mining, which included reaching out to his counterparts in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

He confirmed that a meeting would be held on Saturday between President Cyril Ramaphosa and the justice, crime prevention and security cluster. 

“There is a broader plan we are working on and we hope it won't stop here. This will be the ignition of it and it will continue,” he said.

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