Up until around Saturday last week, Kleinzee in the Namaqualand was just a quiet dorp northwest of nowhere. Then, in just a few hours, the town’s population almost doubled.
Almost 1,000 illegal diamond miners, arrested by police in the surrounding mining area, were deposited in an interim holding area, creating administrative mayhem.
Not only were there not enough resources to look after the detainees, but by the time they’d been transported to Springbok to be processed, they had to be released, because home affairs couldn’t cope with the workload. Most are now back in the Kleinzee area, and have returned to work in their illegal mines.
Mining stakeholders say the bizarre scenes from last week illustrate the scale of the illegal mining problem in one of the most remote corners of the country.
The successful police clampdown, the latest in a series of Diamond Coast raids, has done little to ease tensions in what has become another front in the ongoing battle between the haves and the have-nots — those with mining rights and those without.
“There are reports that they returned to the area — and, yes, police are conducting daily operations in the area,” confirmed Brig Mashay Gamieldien this week in response to Sunday Times queries. “The department of home affairs was not able to process so many undocumented persons ... taking the time period into consideration.”
Of the 867 arrested, only 67 were processed and transferred to Krugersdorp for deportation.
Kleinzee sources say the town is as tense as it was before, and is still just a dusty outpost beyond the frontier of law and order. Some say the massive police operation — which lasted two days and involved three helicopters — has in some ways made the volatile situation worse.
Police also bulldozed a notorious Kleinzee hostel where hundreds of illegal miners had been living.
“They bulldozed their hostels and took away their equipment — we now have 1,000 p***ed-off hungry homeless diggers at large trying to find shelter from the rain,” said one local resident. “The story doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Gamieldien confirmed reports of a shooting this week involving armed security personnel amid say of regular such incidents across a vast terrain of mining concession areas.
The latest police swoop is linked to the recent sale of De Beers’ mine to a new company, which asked for police help in securing their area.
Kleinzee Holdings on Friday confirmed that they required law enforcement to address the uncontrolled influx of illegal miners.
“Whilst we appreciate the actions of the police and other entities, much more needs to be done to eradicate the problem,” Kleinzee Holdings' general manager, Sivi Gounden, told the Sunday Times in response to queries.
He said the state did not appear to have the resources “to address the quantum of foreign miners occupying the area”.
We are the people staying here, and we get nothing. But it’s the people’s land. They are sidestepping the people
— Local artisanal miner
More investigation was also needed to arrest the key beneficiaries of the influx, who were profiting from the risks taken by an impoverished army of foreign zama zamas, Gounden said. The influx was jeopardising plans to employ local residents desperately in need of employment since the exit of De Beers.
“Of course, as a normal mining house we budget for security, but the situation that we find ourselves in is exceptionally abnormal, and in order for us to mine responsibly and sustainably, and to put in place our plans to empower the local communities through our mining activities, we would obviously want to see this abnormal situation resolved as quickly as possible,” Gounden said.
Commenting on the arrests, he said police appeared to have underestimated the scale of the problem, and the company had stepped in to help feed the detainees.
Local artisanal miners say the influx of foreigners is abetted by local landlords who charge R400 a month for backyard shacks in surrounding towns such as Port Nolloth.
They also blame the government for failing to put in place a promised artisanal mining programme, and for not giving locals a decent share of mineral or property rights — or even fishing rights. The miners say many locals are also forced into illegal mining out of desperation. “We are the people staying here, and we get nothing. But it’s the people’s land. They are sidestepping the people,” said a local artisanal miner.
“It’s so bad now with zamas coming in from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and they are walking with guns and pangas. We can't even go and work any more,” he added.
Veronica van Dyk, a local resident and DA MP, slammed home affairs for the botched crackdown.
“It was really disappointing that two days after reports of a successful, but costly, SAPS joint operation to address illegal mining in Kleinzee, more than 750 illegal foreign miners were released after home affairs officials had failed to process them within the required 48 hours.
“The DA indicated that the party [would] definitely hold [home affairs] minister Aaron Motsoaledi to account for this incompetence, [which has cost] taxpayers millions,” Van Dyk said.
“Apparently a home affairs station has now been moved to Kleinzee. Community members have indeed reported miners returning to Kleinzee. The newly appointed security company ... is working to ensure that new invasions [of] the mining area are minimised.
“Unfortunately, mining operations by the new mining company will not happen as long as illegal zamas are in the [mining] area. I went to the area for oversight and found it an extremely unsafe and unhealthy environment. People literally live underground in tunnelled areas. They eat seals — basically anything they can find.
"[We have found] rare succulent species in bags, [and this shows] that illegal poaching is taking place. Drugs and prostitution are the order of the day.”
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