An illegal miner, notorious for a video widely shared on social media where he dares the police to come after him, has claimed his group was behind the recent deadly Riverlea attack, west of Johannesburg, where five zama zamas were shot dead.
In an interview with TimesLIVE Premium, Duma Leqele said the five murders were the result of a turf war between illegal miners operating in the area.
He said the attack was born from a disagreement a few weeks ago in which his group was denied access to mine shafts in and around Riverlea which had been left abandoned by another zama zama group in recent months.
“We’re all from the same organisation (Terene ea Khosi Chakela) and ordinarily, we all share the profits from the mines that we work from. The others refused, even after the many discussions we had with them, but it didn’t get us anywhere,” said Leqele.
“These shafts are new and it would have been fair for all of us to have a share in them,” he said.
He said his group was not happy with the outcome of the discussions, after which they decided to attack them.
Leqele and the opposing faction all belong to a zama zama group known as Terene ea Chakela, which was at the centre of the Nomzamo tavern massacre in Soweto where 16 patrons, including one of its members, were targeted by a rival group last year.
“I cannot say exactly who shot who because I was not there on the day, but it was a decision that was taken beforehand,” said Leqele, referring to the Riverlea shooting.
Police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said no arrests had been made in connection with the five Riverlea murders.
Leqele said he had not been questioned by authorities.
Leqele was plunged into infamy last week when a video of him surfaced and circulated on social media, in which he appears to taunt the police. Leqele said the video was recorded last year, shortly after a fellow illegal miner who was a key witness in the tavern massacre was kidnapped and later murdered.
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“That video is old. I am surprised people think that I am so brave that I will call the police to come after us,” said Leqele, who can be seen brandishing firearms in the video.
“People have been telling me about this video. At first, I was shocked because I didn’t record any videos recently, but I then saw this video after people started talking about it. This video was recorded last year after the murder of one of our colleagues — Khotso (Suwane) — when he was kidnapped by police officers working with our rivals, and he was later killed,” said Leqele.
In the video, Leqele is recorded saying: “Tell these people to send us those police officers to come here. Those ones who call themselves police officers, they need to come here to New Canada, and we will hit (kill) them. We are not to be messed with.”
TimesLIVE reported last year that Suwane was allegedly abducted by men dressed as police officers from his home in Jerusalem informal settlement near Roodepoort and found days after his disappearance. Police said no arrests have been made in connection with Suwane’s murder.
We were all angry; so I dared those rogue officers to come after us because they wanted us to live in fear of them.
— Duma Leqele, illegal miner
Suwane was a key witness in the Soweto tavern massacre and police believe his testimony would have been a significant piece of the puzzle in getting to the root of the mass murders.
“Our rivals have connections with the police. The men who kidnapped him were wearing balaclavas and said they were collecting him because he needed to make another statement. But we were surprised when we found out he was killed a few hours after we last saw him,” said Leqele.
“We were all angry; so I dared those rogue officers to come after us because they wanted us to live in fear of them. It was convenient for this video to surface at this point and during this fighting, but I did not taunt the police.”
The fighting and discovery of the five bodies saw residents in Riverlea and surrounding areas demand the demolition of Zamimpilo informal settlement as they believed that it was a bedrock for illegal mining.
Over 190 illegal miners were arrested after subsequent operations by the police, while 170 of them were undocumented foreign nationals.
During a community meeting last week, residents implored police minister Bheki Cele to eradicate illegal mining activities in the area.
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