An illegal miner sits at the entrance of a mine in Langlaagta. (File photo/MG)
An ill-tasting irony wafted from the presidency this week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa stood before his peers on the international stage at the G20 in Rio, Brazil, and called for the United Nations to remember its mandate to multilateral inclusivity.
He specifically asked for it to prevent “the use of hunger as a weapon” in parts of the world such as Gaza and Sudan.
And yet in his own part of the world that is precisely what was done. We now know that police, as part of “Vala Umgodi”, sealed off the primary Buffelsfontein mine shaft, denying the illegal miners inside access to food and medical attention.
This was an attempt — in the grotesque words of Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni — to “smoke them out”.
Ramaphosa offered his usual anodyne diplomacy in his assessment of the situation, calling for lives to be protected but stopping short of criticising the “standard police practice”. He was also sure to remind us that this is a crime scene we’re dealing with.
The obtuse, unempathetic response of our leaders has been one of the bigger disappointments of the saga. But even if we did the impossible and ignored the ethical blind spots, this should be considered a governance and policy failure.
Illegal mining has been ever-present in our democracy. Despite that fact, there is a dearth of legislation addressing artisanal and small mining projects, and of policy on resource-rich land that is discarded out of the portfolios of rich conglomerates. Every so often an incident makes it into the national headlines, sparking spurts of energy to finally address that shortcoming. But, as interest fades, that energy returns to the recesses of the public consciousness.
That pattern must be broken.
It is not a mystery why zama zamas are so prolific. Mining companies close down a shaft after it ceases to be profitable to extract resources from.
Typically this does not mean its resources have been depleted. As Sheree Bega reports on page 3, few mines are issued with closure certificates, leaving them abandoned and susceptible to criminality. The lack of regulatory intent invites gangs and syndicates to exploit the situation.
Most experts in the sector agree that South African policy fails the avenues beneath large-scale commercial mining, wasting the land’s wealth.
For instance Lunga Mzangwe, on pages 4 and 5, illustrates the far-reaching effects that a vast network of shafts such as that in the Stilfontein area can have on the local economy. The opportunity to formalise that potential is squandered by a system that has been too slow to change.
We must recognise that the solution to illegal mining doesn’t lie in inhumanely hunting down desperate people in an economy that doesn’t offer jobs. Let’s shed that myopia.