Africa-Press – South-Africa. Five people have been killed following a shooting incident in Riverlea, just outside Soweto on the fringes of Johannesburg and the adjacent Zamimpilo informal settlement, which has become a hotspot for illegal mining.
Gauteng police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo, said police believed the incident on Saturday night was related to a territorial clash among different gangs of illegal miners, so-called zama zamas.
He said: “Preliminary investigation suggests that two rival groups of the illegal miners were shooting at each [other] in the area, and that led to the deaths of five people.”
Masondo added that police had deployed officers from the tactical response team and public order policing to monitor the area.
At the same time, DA MP James Lorimer said he had established from residents that the alleged killers were seen moving in the area with automatic weapons.
“One resident says they treated a seriously wounded man and woman on the pavement outside their house while waiting for an ambulance to arrive,” Lorimer said.
He urged the police to provide more details on how they are tackling illegal mining in Riverlea, while also suggesting that not much was being done.
“Until there is a deliberate and systematic effort to tackle criminality associated with illegal mining, the government will continue to lose control of parts of South Africa and the police will be relegated to mere collectors of bodies after the shooting is done,” Lorimer said.
On Friday, DA councillors Tyrell Meyers and Soloman Maila said they would write to Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe to demand immediate intervention and shut down the illegal mining shafts in and around Riverlea that have become a source of serious and violent crime.
“It is clear that national Government lacks the political will to take action, but should they continue down this path, they will have more blood on their hands.”
Last month, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba threatened to take legal action against Mantashe for failing to address the rise of zama zamas and illegal mining in Riverlea.
“It has become clear that the only way we’ll get the ANC government and Minister Mantashe to respond to the pressing needs of our communities – where zama zamas go on shooting sprees amid turf wars – is if we force action through the courts,” he said in a statement.
He was responding to a letter Mantashe sent him in response to an initial letter that Mashaba had written to the minister after visiting the area following a spate of zama zama shootings.
“Instead of taking accountability for his department’s failure to address the rise of zama zamas and illegal mining both in Riverlea and across South Africa, Minister Mantashe, in his written response, instead sought to refer responsibility to the South African Police Service,” he said.
After visiting the area in May, Mashaba said it was Mantashe’s responsibility to address illegal mining.
“The continued operation of zama zamas, and the trauma they affect [on] communities due to their ongoing turf wars, are another sign of the breakdown of the rule of law in South Africa and how our communities have been left defenceless,” he said at the time.
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