{"id":75300,"date":"2025-09-29T18:04:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:55:06","slug":"illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIllegal Mining has Declined Drastically\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b>The security patrols in and around Matsiloje have led to such a significant drop in illegal mining there \u2013 mainly by illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe \u2013 that no arrests have been made since August when security was intensified.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Illegal mining activities in Francistown and the North East have declined significantly following intensified patrols, according to the Botswana Police Service. Assistant Commissioner and Divisional Criminal Investigating Officer for the North, Maikaelelo Chepete, credited the deployment of additional police and military personnel for the improvement.<\/p>\n<p>ARRESTS DECLINE<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the government increased patrols, illegal mining activities have declined drastically,\u201d Chepete told The Botswana Gazette. Before the stepped-up operations, five to 10 illegal miners, mostly from Zimbabwe, were often arrested at once. However, no arrests have been made since August.<\/p>\n<p>COMMUNITY PRESSURE<\/p>\n<p>The crackdown followed complaints raised by Matsiloje residents at a kgotla meeting with the Minister of State President, Moeti Mohwasa. Villagers reported being terrorised by illegal miners armed with dangerous weapons. Matsiloje has long been a hotspot due to abandoned tunnels and shafts from old gold mines.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2025, five Zimbabwean nationals were arrested in the area for illegal mining and crossing into Botswana through ungazetted entry points. Similar arrests were reported in January 2024 at Albert\u2019s Farm near Matsiloje, where four Zimbabweans received prison sentences for illegal mining and unlawful entry.<\/p>\n<p>CALLS FOR LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS<\/p>\n<p>Reached for comment, Tati East MP Tlhabologo Furniture said the patrols had made a difference but warned that lasting safety required reopening commercial mining operations. \u201cOnce the mines are commissioned, the whole area will become safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Botswana<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. The security patrols in and around Matsiloje have led to such a significant drop in illegal mining there \u2013 mainly by illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe \u2013 that no arrests have been made since August when security was intensified. Illegal mining activities in Francistown and the North East have declined significantly following intensified [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":75298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-75300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cIllegal Mining has Declined Drastically\u201d - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The security patrols in and around Matsiloje have led to such a significant drop in illegal mining there \u2013 mainly by ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cIllegal Mining has Declined Drastically\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The security patrols in and around Matsiloje have led to such a significant drop in illegal mining there \u2013 mainly by ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T18:04:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T18:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2025\/09\/sm_1759159455.449827.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cIllegal Mining has Declined Drastically\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-29T18:04:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-29T18:55:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\"},\"wordCount\":276,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2025\/09\/sm_1759159455.449827.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/illegal-mining-has-declined-drastically\",\"name\":\"\u201cIllegal Mining has Declined Drastically\u201d - 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