The assassination in broad daylight of Sibanye-Stillwater lawyer Chinette Gallichan last month has intensified fears about organised crime in South African mining, threatening to damage the country’s reputation among international investors.
Thirty-five-year-old Gallichan was killed outside the courtroom where she had been representing Sibanye in a labour dispute, underscoring a growing wave of violence that is increasingly spilling over into the lives of white-collar workers in the industry.
As record gold prices put illegal mining in the spotlight and President Cyril Ramaphosa deploys armed military forces to combat so-called zama zamas in the small towns surrounding mining operations, tensions around crime in the industry are escalating.
Pan African Resources, a small-cap gold miner that has arrested thousands of illegal miners at its Barberton mines in recent years, said it increasingly provides security to mine managers and other white-collar employees who have been threatened by organised criminal networks in the past.
“Organised crime has had a significant impact on the security of senior management structures, as well as employees dealing with security, employment opportunities, labour relations, procurement processes and production,” the miner told Business Day by e-mail.
Pan African alleges that police corruption, particularly at the Barberton police station, which is responsible for combating crime at its mines in Mpumalanga, has been directly linked to illegal mining activities in that area.
Security executive Lyle Pienaar told Business Day the group has written “numerous letters to the police’s national commissioner, highlighting not only the risks but also the ongoing police corruption identified, which assists and protects these activities.
Organised crime has had a significant impact on the security of senior management structures, as well as employees dealing with security, employment opportunities, labour relations, procurement processes and production
— Pan African Resources
“Unfortunately, these matters have never been dealt with effectively by these policing management structures and continue to occur.
“This is a deterrent to investment and to new entrants seeking to develop mining assets in the country.”
A recent report by the Minerals Council South Africa suggests that an increasing number of mine managers are hiring their own personal security details in response to a growing threat from crime syndicates.
The “threats are no longer small and random; they are highly organised. Mines are hijacked by criminals bringing large earthmoving machines, costing hundreds of millions of rand to sites they attack,” it said.
“These incidents of mines being hijacked by organised crime syndicates are on the increase. Calls to the South African Police Service are sometimes unanswered, and mining companies have put measures in place to protect their operations by private security.”
The elevated price of gold, which continues to trade above $4,500/oz, has become increasingly worth risking jail time over.
In Latin America, drug gangs have been turning to illegal mining, which in 2024 became the most lucrative commodity for criminal networks in Colombia and Peru, according to a money-laundering watchdog.
In Sibanye’s case, Gallichan’s assassination came after a tense period of restructuring in the platinum group metal sector, which saw the company retrenching about 2,500 workers in 2024. It is possible that this environment has elevated the threat of violence, though details of Gallichan’s alleged hitmen have not yet been made public.
Motives aside, the perception of a growing threat of organised crime bodes poorly for South Africa’s reputation in the eyes of foreign investors, many of whom are already discouraged by revelations of corruption from the Madlanga commission.
In a report on the barriers to investment in South Africa’s junior mining sector, the council, which represents most of the country’s biggest miners, listed unchecked “criminality, cartels, mafia and corruption” as among conditions scaring off foreign investors.
“One of the key obstacles is growing criminality and sophisticated cartels that are negatively impacting junior and emerging mining companies, requiring a far more focused and proactive response from the justice cluster as well as the department of mineral & petroleum resources,” it said.
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