Caught in the crossfire
Residents say Ekurhuleni neighbourhood is war zone in battle for control of abandoned mine
● Residents of a once-prestigious Ekurhuleni neighbourhood can’t allow their children to play outside and their schools are no longer safe because a turf war between illegal miners has been raging for a year at a municipal dumpsite on their doorstep.
So brazen are the illegal miners, known as zama zamas, that they have deployed their own security guards, armed with AK-47s, to the Simmer and Jack Landfill on the site of the abandoned gold mine it is named after. The mine was closed about 30 years ago.
Merril Heyns, 60, a resident of Simmerfield in Primrose, Germiston, whose house is next to the dump, described a shoot-out last month along Main Reef Road.
“The Ekurhuleni metro police and private security blocked the road to protect motorists from being hit. Illegal miners started fighting back against the security and metro police. It was mayhem,” she said.
Heyns recorded the gunfight, in which different calibre firearms, including automatic rifles, can be heard as she calls to her husband in fear. But she refuses to give in.
“I don’t lie down when I’m in the house. I cannot live like that. It is terrifying to hear gunshots, but we can’t go live in a hole. Life has to go on. I’m 60 years old. I am not moving. I am not going anywhere. This is my home. This is where I was born,” she said.
“This year has been the worst. It seems like the fighting is just escalating. Government must fill the holes that the zama zamas use with cement and make sure that they don’t come back again.”
School shooting
In March, the battle between the zama zamas spilt into the grounds of the nearby Primrose Technical High School.
One of the teachers said: “I was teaching in class when I heard the gunshots. We took all the learners and teachers to the hall and closed all entrances to the school. But there were teachers and groundsmen who went to check what was happening. The gunmen saw them, jumped the fence and tried to find the people who had seen them. They looked around but the staff had all gone into hiding.”
The shoot-out lasted for 30 minutes and the pupils spent three hours in the hall until police said it was safe to leave.
“The experience was very traumatic. The children were scared. The next day, attendance at the school was so poor. Most parents did not bring their children to school because they did not know whether there was going to be a repeat,” the teacher said, adding that the school has had to increase the number of security guards.
David Barr, vice-chair of the Primrose Ratepayers Association, described the area as a war zone. He said he had written to the City of Ekurhuleni and the provincial government calling for action at the landfill.
The reply he received from the city simply reads: “The competence and mandate to address such a challenge lies with national government.”
Barr said: “We understand that the municipality has a lot of problems, but let us beef up security at the site. We cannot have kids playing outside in our own gardens any more. We need a huge force to push away the zama zamas.”
The landfill site is on the corner of Johan Rissik and Main Reef roads. Opposite Main Reef Road are the Primrose school and the suburb of Simmerfield. Across Johan Rissik is the Marathon informal settlement. The zama zamas are said to live there as well as at the Makause and Delport informal settlements. All three are overcrowded and have
no electricity — making them a perfect hiding place during police raids.
In June, eight bodies of suspected illegal miners were found in the landfill site.
Primrose Community Policing Forum chair Tracy Enslin said the situation has been out of control for the past 18 months, with “shootings mainly in the night and on weekends”.
She said that from her interactions with the zama zamas it appears they have discovered more gold underground, which attracted illegal miners from elsewhere. There were 27 murders in the area between June and August.
Municipal workers who turn up for duty at the dump every day say they have accepted that their job requires them to work in a war zone.
“Our bosses know the situation. We don’t interfere with what the zama zamas are doing. They operate their illegal mining operations while we do our work,” said one worker, who asked not to be named.
When the Sunday Times visited the site this week, there was one zama zama security guard on duty and many illegal miners hard at work.
After a police raid, the worker said, the area “becomes quiet for about three weeks, but after that another group will take over the operations”.
“When the old guys return to reclaim their spot, it is a big fight. We know that after every police raid a big war is coming.”
Michael Robinson, who runs a local security company, Spider Tactical Response, said the frequent turf wars had forced him to increase his staff and place two guards in each vehicle. He also has to alert residents about which streets are safe to use, and escort locals to their homes during and after gunfights.
Residents of Marathon informal settlement are arguably bearing the brunt of the violence. One said that a man was killed just 30 minutes before the Sunday Times arrived on Thursday.
“No-one has come to fetch his body. His killers may pass here at any time and they will see us. That is the kind of life we live here. No-one can solve the situation now.”
Another, who called himself only Bheki, said: “We hear gunshots almost every day as the zama zamas fight among themselves. “A bullet can go through the corrugated iron [of the shack] and hit you inside. I am contemplating returning home because this place is just a war zone. It is not safe at all.”
It is terrifying to hear gunshots but we can't go live in a hole. Life has to go on. I’m 60 years old. I am not moving. I am not going anywhere. This is my home. This is where I was born
Task force
Sizwe Pamla, spokesperson for Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, said many complaints have been made to the provincial government about problems caused by illegal mining.
“Law enforcement agencies are co-ordinating their efforts to address these complaints under the leadership of the SAPS provincial commissioner. There is now a broad agreement that a special task force made up of the army, intelligence services, SAPS and other law enforcement agencies is required,” he said, adding that Lesufi had taken the problem to the President’s Co-ordinating Council, a forum for the president and premiers.
Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the landfill site was fenced but vandals had broken it. He denied the facility had been hijacked, but said the matter had been escalated to the SAPS and metro police, which had increased visible policing.
SAPS spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said the police were aware of the problem in Primrose and were conducting weekly operations to dismantle and disrupt the zama zamas.
“The district and province have also operated in that area several times through Operation Shanela. From August 2023, the Primrose police station has arrested people for possession of unlicensed ammunition and firearms, gold-bearing dust and undocumented persons. Illegal mining equipment has been seized,” he said.
Simmerfield resident Bradley Denness said the authorities don’t care.
“Some time ago, a bullet went through the garage and hit my car on the side. It feels like the state does not care. If they cared, they would have visible police every day monitoring this area. I have decided to leave. I am fixing my house because I want to sell it.”