Entrenched Violence and Vulnerability in Illegal Mining Activities: A Policing Dillema in South Africa

Abstract

In August 2022, the public members in South Africa were shocked by the media reports on 12 women who were raped by illegal miners in Krugersdorp area. This incident led to the nearby community members to match to the site where illegal mining activities are taking place accompanied by the police with the aim of closing off the mining shaft and to destroy the equipment’s used by illegal miners. As a result, over 80 illegal miners were arrested by the police in connection with the rape incident. This report had not only exposed the violent nature of criminals in South Africa but also the extend at which illegal miners in particular disregard the rule of law in the country. This study adopted a qualitative research approach because this method enables the researchers to conduct face to face interviews with the research participants as a way of obtaining in-depth information on the problem at hand. As a result, purposive sampling was used to identify police officials working with illegal mining cases and snowballing was used to identify illegal miners who participate in illegal mining activities to hear their voices on this matter. The findings of this study revealed that illegal miners in South Africa are not only the perpetrators of crimes but also the victims of crimes perpetrated mainly by their fellow illegal miners who dominates the mining spots in the country. While illegal miners are violent and inconsiderate, they are also vulnerable to unhealthy working conditions they find themselves in and to the attacks from their rivals. The society looks up to the South African Police Service and relevant stakeholders like the department of Minerals to deal with illegal mining activities. However, since this is lucrative business that operates more like an organised crime syndicate, it is challenging for the police to deal effectively with this problem. Police attempts to raid idle mining shafts used for illegal mining activities are not effective, mainly because some of the police officials work together with the illegal miners by sharing police information. Sometimes it is also difficult for the police to proof that the illegal miners are in possession of raw gold since this is an area that they do not have the expertise in. Therefore, this study proposes that illegal mining activities in the country should be decriminalised and regulated through the establishment of policies that provides licenses to do mining and to sell minerals in the legal market as well as identify areas that should be used for mining purposes by ordinary citizens.