Six ringleaders of an illegal gold mining “empire” have been arrested and are appearing before the high court in Johannesburg. They have amassed luxury assets, including cars and houses.
The so-called zama-zama informal or artisanal mining industry in SA has followed inevitably from the decline of gold mining as the rich ore bodies were mined out. Many of the artisanal foot- soldiers are retrenched miners who were originally recruited from neighbouring countries to work in SA, so have the skills to work abandoned areas that still retain residual ore.
This large and growing — but illegal — industry imposes high costs on the nation in tax and foreign exchange foregone, and spiralling violent crime. There are also horrendous levels of fatalities underground due to the absence of safety protocols. We are seeing the corruption of legitimate miners by the illegals, who are buying and processing stolen legitimate ore.
We are by no means seeing the worst yet. Our attempts to curb this lucrative illegal industry will surely fail — the financial incentives to pursue these activities are just too great. What can be done? The answer is self-evident: legalise artisanal mining.
Such a move would be win-win. Illegal miners and their leaders would have the advantage of better safety infrastructure, and would be able to raise capital. They would no longer be hounded by the police. In exchange they would pay tax, and process their exports through the SA Reserve Bank.
The foreign foot soldiers who are able to demonstrate that they had previously worked legally in SA should then be granted work permits.
Legalising our artisanal mining industry would, of course, not eradicate all criminal activity. However, establishing this industry on a legal basis would be preferable to our present futile attempts to defy economic gravity.
Willem Cronje
Cape Town
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