Speech by the Honourable Deputy Minister GG Oliphant in the debate on illegal mining in South Africa, National Council of Provinces, Parliament
Honourable Chairperson of the NCOP Honourable Delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
Illegal mining activities are an international problem that has been debated in various platforms in an attempt to find lasting solutions. These are more prominent on the African Continent and even more pronounced in South Africa due to a multiplicity of factors.
With well over 100 hundred years of formal mining plus over 6000 of so called ownerless and derelict mines – with some having mineable material like diamonds, gold, chrome and platinum to name but a few. There is therefore consensus within areas affected by illegal mining that legalization of safe areas plus comprehensive rehabilitation of the environment are key to minimizing such activities.
We have already started a process of issuing permits for some areas to be mined safely and also in the process of strengthening support for small scale miners within the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
The country has recently seen an increase in illegal mining incidents that have resulted in the loss of life of both the perpetrators and in some cases the surrounding communities mainly as a result of underground fires, fall of ground accidents and murder.
Underground illegal mining activities were initially reported in the Free State Province in 1999. However, prior to that there were reports of theft involving diamond and gold predominantly from the processing plants.
The illicit activities further increased in the Free State (Matjhabeng), Mpumalanga (Barberton and Evander), Gauteng (Ekurhuleni and West Rand), North West (Stilfontein) and Northern Cape (Namaqualand and Kimberley) Provinces. These activities are conducted by desperate people especially former mineworkers who were retrenched locally but also from neighbouring countries like Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique willing to risk their lives for numerous reasons.
It is estimated that more than 80% of the people doing the digging are from neighbouring countries. It is however important to note that some illicit miners are current mineworkers who are doing such activities whilst on shift and former miners who have been laid off.
Illegal miners are taking high risks to access sealed old mines by digging holes into extremely dangerous underground areas with no oxygen and which have also experienced fall of ground. These illicit activities also have a negative impact on the economy and result in significant loss of revenue for the State and the mining sector. Accordingly, a study estimated that about 10% (i.e. R7.3 billion for 2013) of gold production is stolen and smuggled out of the country annually.
The illegal mining modus operandi is continuously changing as the department and relevant stakeholders implement measures ultimately to eradicate these illicit activities.
For instance, there is now an increase in violent crimes associated with illegal mining including murder as a result of rival gang activity predominantly with illegal miners from Lesotho.
Syndicate activities fall within the framework of the Prevention of Organized Crimes Act (POCA). Hence, the Department is collaborating with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to implement measures which will ultimately lead to the eradication of the illicit activities. South Africa regulates the industry and criminalizes illegal possession of precious metals. However, this is not the case in many countries and the illicit trafficking of precious metals is not an international crime focus area.
In order for us to tackle and eradicate these activities, we need to understand the major factors fuelling illegal mining. Illegal mining is largely fuelled by highly organized, dangerous, well financed and complex local and international crime syndicates which have up-to-date maps of mining operations. The syndicates operate in liquidated, operating and non-operating mines. The kingpins mainly recruit unemployed illegal immigrants, providing them with basic survival necessities while training them on how to access the mine workings.
It is also reported that the syndicates arrange for hit men and weapons to be utilized in the killing of rival gangs. Several deaths have been reported and law enforcement agencies, including Department officials’ lives are at risk as a result of the criminal activities. Generally illegal miners are at the bottom of the network were previously the ones who were caught were charged with less serious offences like trespassing. However, law enforcement agencies are making stride by doing significant arrests of some of the syndicate members.
Another contributing factor to illegal mining is the demand for precious metals that has led to the increase in national and international highly organised syndicates. Local and global crime syndicates are also taking advantage of the rise of the commodity prices e.g. gold price increased from $271.08/oz in 2001 to about $1252.50/oz in 2014.
Many of the shafts that have been sealed by CGS and respective mining companies are reopened by illegal miners. Some of the shafts and openings have been sealed and reopened as many as five times. It is however important to note that CGS has managed to close 200 open shaft nationally. The Department of Mineral Resources and relevant stakeholders like the police and mining companies are continually engaging to come up and implement solutions in fighting these criminals.
Chairperson,
I am pleased to announce that we have thus far established forums, which meet once a month, in Mpumalanga, Free State, Gauteng and Northern Cape for the purpose of implementing measures to ultimately eradicate illegal mining activities.
These forums comprise of officials from the Department, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the South African Police Service (SAPS) [ specifically the Directorate for Priority Crimes and Investigation (DPCI)], Visible Policing (VISPOL) and Crime Intelligence (CI)], as well as officials from the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator (SADPMR), the Department of Home Affairs (DoH), Council for Geoscience (CGS), municipalities affected by these activites, mining companies and organised labour.
Reports from these forums are submitted to the National Co-ordination Strategic Management Team (NCSMT). The SAPS has arrested 800 illegal miners in 2016 compared to 500 illegal miners in 2015. The conviction rate on illegal mining cases has increased from 2 months to 8 years.
Some of the measures implemented by government and stakeholders to eradicate the illegal operations include:
The promotion of legitimate mining:
In this regard the Department continues to promote legitimate mining and removal of exposed minerals at sites which are viable to mine. For instance, the Department has issued a mining permit to conduct mining operations in the East Rand, where illegal mining activities were taking place and mining operations have commenced in the area.
Outcrop and sub-outcrop were mined successfully in an area that had high illegal mining activities in Riverlea outside the Roodepoort area. A total of 300 people have been employed from local communities in and around Gauteng during mining and removal of tailings as well as gravel material where illegal mining operations were taking place.
Working together with the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, we have managed to successful rehabilitate an illegal mining site in Bleksbokspruit and as a result no illegal mining activities are taking place in the area.
We have further rehabilitated the Durban Roodepoort Deep dam, more rehabilitation work is currently taking place at Goudrand in the West Rand. A total of 200 workers were employed, in Gauteng, during the sealing of shafts and open holes by the Council of Geo Science, an entity reporting to the Minister of Mineral Resources.
As a department, we advise and encourage municipalities and companies to utilise the respective illegal mining rehabilitated land for property development. I, in this regard, wish to commend the West Rand municipality for utilizing land that has been rehabilitated in the area of Matholesville for property development.
As I had indicated earlier, eradicating illegal mining requires all stakeholders to be on board, it is for this reason that the South African Police Service’s Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) conducts forensic analysis on gold bearing material (GBM) samples referred to it by law enforcement agencies and the mines and a fingerprinting database is also kept of the sample results.
The South African Precious Metals and Diamond Regulator also conducts inspections at both new and existing diamond and precious metals business premises to ensure compliance with the law by license holders.
The department welcomes efforts by mining companies that are affected by illegal mining, such as strengthening access control and security measures at the mines including the installation of biometrics systems.
Some regional courts are now accepting the gold bearing material (GBM) evaluation reports done by the Essay Laboratories of the mining companies as evidence in illegal mining cases.
Members of the South African Police Service are continuously being trained on how to handle illegal mining related cases. The Visible Policing unit is also running in-house awareness campaigns on the subject of illegal mining.
These training workshops are also conducted with other law enforcement agencies like the NPA, in order to train prosecutors on the formulation of charges using the appropriate legislation. Police officers are also trained to identify, amongst others, gold, platinum and diamonds.
The National Coordination and Strategic Management Team has also been engaged in a process of developing an integrated Training Manual meant to be incorporated into various government departments' training programmes. The manual will guide the training of police officials who deal with all levels of the illegal mining value chain.
Disruptive operations by law enforcement agencies are making significant inroads to unearth crime syndicates, especially kingpins who benefit out of the proceeds of these illicit activities. Some of the major arrests made include the following:
- Over 200 tons of gold concentrate, worth millions of rands, were uncovered by the police inside a granite factory in Potchefstroom in the North West. Two known suspects are believed to be behind this illicit trade and the police are pursuing them.
- Two suspects were arrested in Kempton Park for being in possession of an undisclosed amount of illicitly mined gold and also about 3 000 fraudulent identity documents. The suspects are believed to be part of the illegal mining syndicate that has fabricated over 16 000 fraudulent invoices worth about R437 million to reflect purchases of second hand gold jewellery.
- Police seized gold worth around R20 million following coordinated raids on several properties in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg CBD, and Limpopo.
- Two Kloof Gold Mine employees were found guilty of committing fraud involving mine access control cards and they were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
- 105 illegal miners and 27 employees were arrested at Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu operation, the latter for assisting illegal miners to enter the underground workings of the mine.
- A woman was arrested in Matholesville, Roodepoort, for illegal possession of an undisclosed amount of explosives and in possession of R13 200, 00.
- Illegal miners were arrested in the Viva informal settlement near Braamfisherville for the illegal possession of eight gas bottles, six bottles of mercury, three bottles of nitric acid and 35 bags of gold bearing material (GBM).
- A Mine manager was arrested after he was allegedly found in possession of 1,3 kilograms of gold believed to have been 80% pure and worth about R500 000.00.
- Twenty Sibanye Gold employees were arrested at Driefontein Gold Plant for gold theft. It is believed that the employees are part of a syndicate.
- The SAPS arrested diamond syndicate members and seized assets worth R50 million in Gauteng, Free State and Limpopo.
- Eighteen police officials, including those from the Hawks, were arrested in the Free State for their role in fuelling these activities.
Chairperson,
I can assure you that more arrests are imminent as we continue to fight these activities that steal our mineral wealth. We also support the notion that Operation Fiela be involved in areas that are affected by illegal mining activities.
On an international front, the South Africa Government has tabled a proposal at the United Nations (UN) which subsequently led to a resolution, entitled “Combatting transnational organised crime and its possible links to illicit trafficking in precious metals”, to be adopted.
Subsequently a South African delegation recently participated in a United Nations Inter-regional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) initiative to assist in implementing the resolution.
The Department of Home Affairs convened a workshop with other relevant departments, including the Department of Mineral Resources, to engage on immigration laws, as the problem of illegal immigration is dealt with holistically as it relates to an array of security related threats in the country.
One of the Government's priorities has also been driving the process of establishing the Border Management Agency (BMA) which will be key in addressing all security threats emanating from the border environment including illegal immigration and other cross border crimes.
As a department mandated to be custodians of the country’s mineral wealth, we have requested legal advice from the State Law Adviser on the enhancement of legislation to address illegal mining. The advice was subsequently provided and will be included in the law once the MPRDA Bill is referred back to the department for consideration.
The National Co-ordination Strategic Management Team (NCSMT) has also established a Legislative Task Team to improve legislation to make prosecutions more effective and to ensure that harsher sentences can be imposed on those found guilty.
I thank you!
