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News24 reports that the weapons used in some of the murders - including last week's tavern massacre - in the ongoing war for territory between zama zama (illegal mining) gangs in the North West have alleged been rented from members of Lesotho's security forces.
Terene ea Khosi Mokata gang members had been told their Letlama rivals were drinking at a tavern in Kanana, in Orkney, on Friday night. The gang launched an attack, ambushing patrons in the tavern and leaving eight people dead. Four men arrested for the mass murder made a brief appearance in the Orkney Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. An illegal miner and former member of the Terene ea Khosi Mokata gang claimed on Wednesday that some of the weapons used in attacks between Basotho gangs were rented from Lesotho law enforcement personnel. The miner claimed soldiers and police officers in the kingdom were sympathisers of groups such as Terene. "Some of these firearms are brought in from Mozambique because we tend to work with them on some of the mines around Stilfontein. The weapons are kept in abandoned shafts and used mainly for security purposes and fighting off rivals from our territories," the illegal miner explained. "Sometimes you find that members of the Lesotho Defence Force and the Lesotho Mounted Police Service [LMPS] come into SA to carry out a hit, and slip back into Lesotho undetected," he also claimed. A North West police source, tasked with tackling the scourge of illegal mining around Klerksdorp, confirmed that they had previously recovered weapons which had serial numbers connected to the armies of neighbouring countries. A police source said that since the deployment of the SA National Defence Force in the area to combat illegal mining, zama zamas had resorted to robbing residents.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tankiso Makhetha at News24
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