Conflict: Mining on abandoned sites in Zama city is exacerbating environmental damage and posing safety concerns. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
The government has been held responsible for the crisis in the informal mining sector, resulting in police blockades of open mines as a tactic to “eliminate” informal miners underground in Stilfontein in the northwest.
said Sean Lesoko, president of the National Association of Artisanal Miners (Naam).
“The main reason we are in this crisis is because the government is dragging its feet in finalizing the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) policy,” he said.
This was amended in 2022 by Minister of Minerals and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe.
“Two years on, the policy is sitting on paper because there is no political will to act,” Lesoko said, adding that the minister was not treating the issue with the urgency it deserved. he added. Please do the right thing and resign. ”
A regulated, formal, artisanal and small-scale mining sector is the right way to deal with the criminal elements that are “quite prevalent” in the sector, and “some steps must be taken” to curb the illicit flows of minerals and related funds. ” method. He said he left the country.
Mr Lesoko said the revenue generated could contribute “tremendously” to the local and national revenue base. Additionally, if the sector is allowed to operate legally, it will enable better environmental standards and mine health and safety.
“We are well aware of the history of South Africa's mining sector, which included the recruitment of workers from rural South Africa and SADC as cheap labor.” [Southern African Development Community] nations,” he said.
“Many of these miners were not provided with formal documentation by the apartheid regime, and the same problem now faces their descendants, many of whom are now undocumented adults, contributing to South Africa's destitution. I am a member of the mining community.”
Most are unable to secure formal work and feel “extremely vulnerable” to exploitation by criminal gangs who seek to run the artisanal mining sector with a “violent and iron fist”.
Lesoko said the syndicate had been recruiting poor and vulnerable youth from SADC countries with the promise of greener pastures, but the aim was to take extreme advantage of their illegal status and treat them as slave labor. That is to say.
“Many are kept underground against their will and forced to participate in violent conflicts with rival syndicates and regular miners.
“The government has not considered any of these factors. [police] Effectively closing access to the shafts in Orkney and Stilfontein to keep the miners above ground to be starved and arrested. ”
Given that many of these miners are working against their will for criminal organizations, they feel that they too are victims of human trafficking and exploitation, but are not exposed. No one should think that it is a choice.”
Mr Lesoko said that if the government was serious about finding solutions to the artisanal mining crisis, it would have to “promote ASM policy in the mining community so that those who are genuinely interested in the ASM sector can take an interest in ASM policy.” “They have answered our call for education and awareness about this issue.” You know there are alternatives to DMRE as a way to make a living. [department of mineral resources] We are committed to carrying out. ”
He said Nahm had previously told the ministry to devise a pilot program aimed at transitioning from large-scale mining to legal artisanal mining. Because clearly there were still valuable minerals to be mined on an artisanal scale, but not on a large scale.
“If a just transition through ASM policies is not implemented soon, criminal organizations will completely take over and occupy this sector,” he said, adding that the ministry's response continued to be inadequate.
The government has embarked on a check-box exercise to enforce bureaucratic requirements for obtaining the mining permits needed to qualify for loans, without taking into account the poverty and illiteracy of artisanal miners, both men and women. .
“How can artisanal miners who operate outside the legal framework obtain mining permits?”
He said Na'am has constituencies in five provinces where artisanal mining takes place.
“We will provide education and awareness about the ASM policy to groups of artisanal miners and support them in registering their cooperatives to apply for artisanal mining permits as recommended by the revised ASM policy. , we have made great progress. Unfortunately, all of them were rejected due to bureaucratic red tape.”
Naam is offering its expertise and its constituency to the government for consideration as pilot projects in the artisanal and small-scale mining sectors, he said.
With support from governments and the private sector, access to tunnels and funding for environmentally friendly recovery methods can improve the lives of artisanal miners in distressed mining communities and boost the economy. Masu.
Mariette Lieferink of the Sustainable Environment Federation said the ASM policy legalizes artisanal and small-scale mining, distinguishes it from illegal mining, and strengthens laws on the criminalization of illegal mining to deter illegal mining activities. He said the aim was to establish regulations against illegal mining. A trained detective force.
“Adoption and regulatory transition has been slow. The law provides for small-scale mining, but small-scale miners have to apply for a permit, and from an ASM policy perspective, artisanal miners are South African citizens. They must not be illegal immigrants,” she said.
“They can only operate in surface and open-cast mines, and not underground, as is the current case in Stilfontein. They also have to enter into agreements with large-scale miners. yeah. [lease] …and the department must educate artisanal miners, especially regarding the use of mercury and cyanide. ”
The policy also calls for criminalizing illegal miners and creating a special investigation unit to deal with illegal mining, Lieferink said.
“The policy is there. The problem is that South Africa is very good at policy, strategy and regulation, but very bad at implementing it.”
The department did not respond email and guardianThis week we have an inquiry from .
President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly newsletter: “We need to be clear that the activities of these miners are illegal. They pose a risk to our economy, communities and personal safety.”
“The Stilfontein Mine is a crime scene where illegal mining crimes are being committed. It is standard police practice everywhere to secure the crime scene and cut off escape routes to allow criminals to evade arrest. In doing so, police must take great care to ensure that lives are not put at risk and that the rights of all people are respected.
