BusinessLive reports that Sibanye Gold security head Nash Lutchman said at a briefing on Tuesday aimed at “contextualising illegal mining” that a deep undercurrent of corruption, coupled with a lack of policing and prosecutorial skills, have allowed illegal gold mining syndicates to run rampant in SA’s gold mines.
Illegal mining costs the country about R20bn a year in lost sales, taxes and royalties. Sibanye recently had 461 illegal miners arrested at its four Cooke mines. "The syndicates are having a field day. They are laughing all the way to the bank. We don’t have sufficiently trained police to deal with this type of mining-related crime. Our National Prosecution Authority lacks the particular skills to prosecute this," Lutchman said. He added that employees and mine security personnel were worsening the problem by smuggling food underground and aiding illegal miners. Sibanye has found that 90% of those arrested for illegal mining at its operations were foreign, with many having mining experience as retrenched or out-of-work miners.
- Read this report by Allan Seccombe in full at BusinessLive
- Read too, Sibanye could be losing R756m to illegal miners, at Moneyweb
- And also, Cops seize 200 bags of gold dust in Rosettenville after arrest of zama zamas, at The Star
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page