Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Villagers in North West at the mercy of an illicit mining syndicate

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Villagers in North West at the mercy of an illicit mining syndicate · Drive with John Perlman

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  Speaker 1: Drive home with John Perlman on 702.
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  Speaker 2: Let's walk the talk.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's focus on a story now that, in fact,
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  Speaker 1: one of our listeners dropped us a note, a voice note,
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  Speaker 1: and said, you know what, this is a huge story.
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  Speaker 1: How do we get to the point where some people
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  Speaker 1: have their houses at risk of collapse because there is
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  Speaker 1: illegal mining going on in the area where they live
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  Speaker 1: and underneath the ground on which they're trying to live
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  Speaker 1: their lives? Alpha Ramushwana, our EWN colleague, has been out there.
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  Speaker 1: trying to find out a little bit more about what's
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  Speaker 1: going on and whether this can be resolved in some way. Alpha,
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  Speaker 1: very good afternoon to you. Set the scene, if you will,
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  Speaker 1: just to get us started by telling us where you
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  Speaker 1: went and what you saw.
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  Speaker 2: Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Ndate John. As part of our
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  Speaker 2: election coverage at EWN, we visited communities across South Africa
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  Speaker 2: just to see the challenges that they face and how
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  Speaker 2: life is. And one of those communities that we visited
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  Speaker 2: is the Wapong Village in Northwest, not too far from Brits.
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  Speaker 2: And that community was hit hard by an illegal mining
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  Speaker 2: syndicate late last year. Now, that syndicate, Ndate John, isn't
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  Speaker 2: like the ones that we're used to in Gauteng where
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  Speaker 2: they target people deserted mine shafts. But these are syndicates
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  Speaker 2: that are targeting chrome, which lies a few meters beneath
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  Speaker 2: the surface, a few meters beneath the homes of residents
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  Speaker 2: in Mapong. And so what they do or what they've
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  Speaker 2: done is they've brought massive excavators in Dattejon. And not
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  Speaker 2: only did they dig on public land, but they dug
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  Speaker 2: right outside people's homes. They dug right outside schools. In
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  Speaker 2: some cases, they dug right beneath the homes of people.
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  Speaker 2: And so we have an entire community that has been
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  Speaker 2: left with massive ditches about 10 meters down in Dattejon.
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  Speaker 2: I would encourage the listener to go to EWN.co.za or
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  Speaker 2: any of our digital platforms or YouTube to just see
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  Speaker 2: the picture of how it looks there. And so residents
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  Speaker 2: have had to live in fear since last year. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the syndicate has left in Dattejon, but those ditches are
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  Speaker 2: still there. The excavators were never removed. They are still there.
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  Speaker 2: And so residents now have to navigate life with those
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  Speaker 2: massive dishes. One wrong step. One wrong step is all
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  Speaker 2: it takes for them to fall into the dishes.
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  Speaker 1: It's an extraordinary thing that you're describing in Bapong Alpha,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm just going on to the site now to
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  Speaker 1: pick up those visuals that you've described. That's, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this is not people underground in the dark of night
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  Speaker 1: or whatever. People are there with earth-moving equipment. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: did anyone... ever indicate that the police came, that anybody
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  Speaker 1: came and said, what is going on here? You're breaking
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  Speaker 1: the law. You're under arrest. I mean, it is the
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  Speaker 1: most blatant form of criminality that I think I've heard
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  Speaker 1: about in a while.
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  Speaker 2: The police, according to the residents, were never active when
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  Speaker 2: this started late last year, up until government, national government
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  Speaker 2: decided to intervene earlier this year. What the national government
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  Speaker 2: did recently was to deploy the South African National Defense
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  Speaker 2: Force to the community to ensure that the syndicate does
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  Speaker 2: not return. So only the SA and DFA. really brought
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  Speaker 2: a stop to what has been happening in Mapong. Community members,
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  Speaker 2: on the other hand, for some reason believe that the
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  Speaker 2: local police may have had a hand in this because
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  Speaker 2: it makes no sense that it happened for so long. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what residents say is that the illegal mining syndicate was
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  Speaker 2: so intentional in that they would offer residents money to
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  Speaker 2: dig inside their yards. So in some cases, as soon
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  Speaker 2: as you open the front door, you are greeted by
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  Speaker 2: a massive ditch and you think, immediately could fall if
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  Speaker 2: you're not sober enough. That's just how bad it is.
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  Speaker 2: And so the residents believe that the police may have
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  Speaker 2: been in on it because it makes no sense that
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  Speaker 2: they did not stop this right at the beginning, late
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  Speaker 2: last year.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the pictures, Alpha. They're absolutely astonishing.
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  Speaker 1: I mean... I really urge people do go to EWN.co.za,
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  Speaker 1: type in LGE2026 for local government elections, and that'll lead
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  Speaker 1: you swiftly to Alpha's report. Alpha, there is a house
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  Speaker 1: literally on the point of sliding. I can't judge from
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  Speaker 1: your picture, but it looks into a hole that's, what, 10,
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  Speaker 1: 15 meters deep? And the hole is massive, much wider
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  Speaker 1: than the house itself.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, Dr. John, it's a RDP house right there in
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  Speaker 2: Bapong and right next to the front door is where
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  Speaker 2: the ditch that goes about 10 meters down starts. So
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  Speaker 2: the people who live in that house have obviously have
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  Speaker 2: had to move out of the house because there is
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  Speaker 2: now no way to access the house. in to access
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  Speaker 2: the house or to leave the house because the massive
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  Speaker 2: ditch starts right as you open the door. The house
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  Speaker 2: is definitely on the brink of collapse in Dattejon. It's
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  Speaker 2: slanted slightly and so any moment now the house could
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  Speaker 2: give in. But as we speak, that house is literally
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  Speaker 2: hanging on to almost nothing. It does seem as though
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  Speaker 2: bad weather could definitely send that house falling. No one
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  Speaker 2: lives in the house as we speak. They've had to
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  Speaker 2: move out. But it's an RDP house that was once
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  Speaker 2: home to a family. And now all they can see
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  Speaker 2: is look at the house literally on the brink of
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  Speaker 2: collapse after the syndicate dug underneath the house, right on
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  Speaker 2: the edge of the house next to the front door.
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  Speaker 1: Alpha, you started off by saying that what took you
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  Speaker 1: out to Bapong is... getting a sense, taking the temperature
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  Speaker 1: in different parts of South Africa and seeing what people
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  Speaker 1: are saying as local government elections draw near. What are
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  Speaker 1: residents saying about the elections? I mean, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if political parties have come there to campaign or to
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  Speaker 1: seek their votes. Do they have any shred of optimism
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  Speaker 1: at all that the elections might fix anything?
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  Speaker 2: One of the questions that we ask residents when we
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  Speaker 2: go out to these provinces is, will you vote in
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  Speaker 2: the upcoming elections given the problem that you are facing?
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  Speaker 2: And really, we've received mixed responses. Some of them have emphasized, Dr. John,
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  Speaker 2: that they won't vote because they believe that voting is
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  Speaker 2: not going to bring any change. They say that they
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  Speaker 2: voted a number of times before and no change ever
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  Speaker 2: happened in their lives. They don't believe that voting this
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  Speaker 2: time around will bring a change. But there are other
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  Speaker 2: residents who hold a very different view, those who believe
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  Speaker 2: that they need to vote to bring in a new
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  Speaker 2: government that could possibly address the problems that they are facing.
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  Speaker 2: So the residents really have mixed views on what's happening
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  Speaker 2: in Mapung and whether or not voting will bring a change.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks very much, Alpha Ramoshwana. And again, just to remind you,
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  Speaker 1: ewn.co.za forward slash 2026, or you can just enter the
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  Speaker 1: search type. In fact, there's a tab that leads you
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  Speaker 1: to all the local government elections on this excellent site.
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  Speaker 1: But the photographs are absolutely astonishing. We're looking at huge holes, Doug,
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  Speaker 1: in this community. And I'm obviously trying to estimate from
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  Speaker 1: a photograph, but it looks like some of these absolutely
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  Speaker 1: cavernous holes that have been dug into the middle of
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  Speaker 1: this community look to me to be 70, 80 meters deep.
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  Speaker 1: Anyone who goes there and has a sharper quantity surveyor
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  Speaker 1: or engineering eye than I do Just drop me a
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  Speaker 1: note and tell me what you see.
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  Speaker 2: Incredible.
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  Speaker 1: Give us a ring on that on 011-883-0702 and 011-883-0702.
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  Speaker 1: Tutu responds immediately and says, where did these mining syndicates
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  Speaker 1: get these big excavators they use? These are no ordinary zamazamas.
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  Speaker 1: And where were the police and the soldiers? Fair questions,
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  Speaker 1: both of them.