Miners, West Rand residents say
zamas, or the gold dust or they sell bullets to them — the same bullets which are killing me.
“At night if something happens, you phone them and they can’t come
— either there is no transport or they say, ‘We told you to move out of there.’ This is my house. Where am I going to go? You can’t win unless the police do something but we don’t have police. You rather don’t go to the station and complain … or the next thing you’re going to hear these gangs kicking your door down.”
Brigadier Brenda Muridili, the
Gauteng spokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS), says allegations of police complicity are common.
“We always say that when we say people must report, you don’t have to go to Randfontein police station and report the police that are corrupt in Randfontein police station. Obviously, you are not going to get assistance ... There are many platforms that the community can report if they don’t trust the SAPS.
“For as long as they keep saying the ‘police in Bekkersdal are corrupt’, and you don’t say Brigadier Muridili took money from so and so … we cannot deal with a blanket allegation … We know that not all police officers are angels. We have hardworking members, hence you see the successes we’ve achieved on the West Rand,” she says, adding that rogue police officers are arrested by police officers.
Lieutenant Colonel Philani Nkwalase, spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), weighed in: “Those are very serious allegations and those allegations are issues that should be investigated by us. By all means, somebody must come forward to us and make those allegations to us and be prepared to give us a sworn statement, and we will act accordingly.
“I have not come across such allegations, I’m not saying it’s not plausible, it may very well be. The Hawks are willing and able to clean the police and deal with corrupt cops like we have always done. Those that make their allegations must call us and be prepared to give statements, if they want to remain anonymous that can also be arranged, [but] there must be solid evidence.”
A 2019 policy brief by Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organised Crime (Enact) noted how the phenomenon of illegal artisanal mining is “inextricably linked with the endemic corruption” that permeates the public and private sectors.
“The complicity of local police in illegal mining also complicates efforts to contain the activities of the miners. Zama zamas complain that police regularly shake them down for bribes in return for not arresting them, or confiscate their gold and sell it directly to the syndicates,” the report noted.
“One gun retrieved during an underground firefight was registered to the South African Police Service, suggesting police collusion with the most violent strata of the syndicates. Senior police officials acknowledge such complicity but have yet to take concrete action to stop the practice.”