Cyril Ramaphosa
Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy chairperson Sahlulele Luzipo has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to the escalating cases of illegal mining in Gauteng by convening a meeting over the weekend with government Ministers in the security cluster.
According to Luzipo, by convening such a meeting, Ramaphosa has demonstrated his appreciation of the committee’s long-held view that government should view illegal mining activities as a threat to national security.
“Illegal mining activities have always been associated with peripheral violent crimes that are complicated to predict, such as rape, the terror of mining communities, stock theft, murder, damage to national infrastructure and social amenities, human trafficking, as well as the illicit trade of contraband goods,” he said.
Luzipo believes the security cluster meeting will yield positive results to end the scourge of illegal mining, and said the National Treasury would support any need for additional financial resources.
The committee is of the view that, in the short term, there should be considerable investment directed toward the closure of ownerless and derelict mines.
In the long term, it says, various pieces of legislation need to be harmonised to respond to the challenges of illegal mining, such as the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the Companies Act, No. 71 of 2008, as well as the national policy on artisanal and small-scale mining.
“As most illegal miners are from neighbouring countries, an urgent engagement should be held with Southern African Development Community countries,” the committee avers.