Chair, please accept my apology for running late. Sometimes programmes tend to clash, so I once more tender my apology for coming a bit late.
Hon members, today's debate deals with issues of illegal mining. Theft of gold and illicit mining is nothing new in South Africa, as theft has been occurring since the inception of the gold mining industry.
Illicit mining in South Africa started to gain momentum from the late 1990s. Illicit mining first reared its ugly head in Welkom as far back as 1999. The department and mining companies have been working together over the last decade to put an end to this problem, but with little success. The recent unfortunate loss of 91 illegal diggers' lives in Welkom has again put into sharp relief the scourge of illicit mining, and has focused public attention on the issue like never before.
Illicit mining poses serious challenges for the industry. This issue is extremely complex and it should not be underestimated. Illegal mining is a huge multibillion rand criminal industry featuring national and international syndicates and is valued at some R5,6 billion.
These gold smuggling syndicates are highly organised, dangerous and well resourced. When considering the question of how these syndicates manage to transport food and other consumables deep down into the mines, it is clear that illicit mining is being assisted by legal miners, both workers and managers.
Explosives and equipment are also transported and stolen from underground stores of operating mines. Thousands of diggers - many coming from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe - are willing to risk their lives to profit from these illegal activities.
These illegal diggers are armed and dangerous. We want to send a clear message that poverty cannot be an excuse for criminal activities. I want to make it clear that all those involved in illegal mining are no different from those ruthless criminals involved in cash-in-transit heists who mercilessly kill our policemen and policewomen.
In Barberton, in the province of Mpumalanga, illegal diggers are now taking over equipment and work places. They openly carry a huge number of weapons, including AK47s and 9mm pistols. Intergang fights and shoot-outs are now a daily occurrence in this area.
Confrontations between illegal miners, the police and security personnel are becoming more frequent. Legal miners have also been abducted in Barberton and illegal miners use human shields when confronting the police. In Welkom, booby traps using explosives are set for the police and security personnel.
Therefore, illicit mining is also spilling over into illegal activities, including child prostitution and child labour. Both employees and communities are experiencing serious threats where illicit mining takes place. These illegal activities are impacting negatively on the economy, robbing our country and its people of valuable resources which could otherwise have been used to improve the lives of our people.
The sophistication of these gold smuggling syndicates cannot be underestimated. The so-called zama zamas are the diggers recruited from the ranks of experienced, unemployed miners, and are known to stay underground for up to a year. They protect their turf from other illegal miners or threaten and attack legal miners.
At another level, local gangs are also involved in, amongst other things, recruitment and the supply of food and basic necessities underground. This creates networks of mine officials and security guards who receive bribes for their support and even provide legal support to arrested illegal miners.
The local syndicates interface with the exporter who then smuggles gold out of the country. The smuggled gold then changes hands with intermediaries or front companies and ends up with international buyers. These illicit mining activities threaten to undermine the country's economy, and social and security policies which have been coined, not only for enhancing the Republic's reputation as an investment destination of choice, but also for its citizens to enjoy the fruits of our democracy.
To this end, this government has taken decisive steps to ensure that we deal firmly with illegal mining. On 2 June 2009, we visited Welkom immediately after receiving the news of the 36 deaths there, to see for ourselves and get a first-hand understanding of the issue.
We visited Welkom again, on 13 June 2009, to discuss the issues with a wide range of role-players, including the local communities, municipalities, business people, mining companies and trade unions. Representatives of the SAPS, both nationally and provincially, were also in attendance.
Subsequent to that, we established the Free State Illegal Mining Stakeholder Forum, constituted by community leaders, organised labour, municipalities, mining companies, the Department of Mineral Resources, and the SAPS as well as the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Other relevant departments are also consulted to provide assistance where necessary.
The Free State Illegal Mining Stakeholder Forum has since developed an action plan to eradicate illegal mining activities in the region. The stakeholder forum continually monitors progress made on the implementation of the action plan by the relevant stakeholders, as a sign of the forum's success. There are now reports that illegal miners have been migrating to the West Rand in Gauteng.
Having been presented with this matter, Cabinet noted the serious nature of the threat that illegal mining poses to the country, and took a decision that the matter be attended to by the Justice Crime Prevention Security cluster, the relevant structure to deal with this criminality.
We have since presented this criminal matter to the Inter-Ministerial Security Cluster, which agreed, amongst other things, that the newly-formed Hawks must take over and investigate illicit mining in its totality; that relevant legislation must be applied without fear or favour to deal with racketeering, money laundering, illegal possession of minerals and so on; and that an investigation should determine whether or not local police and prosecutors in the relevant magisterial district are involved with the illegal mining syndicates.
A delegation of Ministers of the JCPS cluster and I will soon visit some of the affected areas to assess for ourselves what else can be done to deal comprehensively with the issue of illicit mining.
In conclusion, I want to assure this House that my department and, indeed, this government of South Africa, have taken decisive steps to tackle the issue of illegal mining head-on. However, I also want to assure the criminal syndicates involved in illegal mining that we have resolved to crush them. We are determined, we are strengthened and we will continue in our efforts. They will continue to feel the heat as government closes in on them, until they stop robbing our people of the minerals that, as per the Freedom Charter, belong to them. I thank you. [Applause.]