The Human Cost of Gold,South Africa’s Illegal Mining Crisis
Zama Zamas: A Golden Gamble
There is a very sad trend at the moment in South Africa hundreds of ‘zama zama’ or Illegal gold miners trapped in disused gold mines. This has birth a humanitarian issues and also elicited questions about the government’s stance and approach to such illegal activities as mining. Galamsey is a very unsafe and sometime fatal activity. Everyday, the miners engage themselves in dangerous practices with little or no protection in regions considered dangerous.
The mines that they sneak into are almost always known to collapse, flood or simply fill with toxic gases. This is why the quest to mining precious minerals especially gold has made many people take these dangerous stunts. The plight of the trapped miners in South Africa has however been responded with a web of activities by politicians and the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The government has not tolerated acts of unlawful mining because of its negative impacts to individuals, property and the environment. They have implemented strategies to deter and apprehend illegal miners, including the operation” Vala Umgodi’ A crackdown on miners, which is a major police action to arrest comprised miners and destroy their infrastructures,A willingness to employ security forces for patrol of abandoned mines and areas that have been previously scene to records crimes.
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Collaboration with International Partners: Asking for support from the neighboring countries in order to reduce numbers of the illegal miners. But, the action plan of government has been termed as coercive and not locating the problem at a deeper level. The directors are annoyed claiming that instead of helping the trapped miners the aid should force them out.
The SAPS has therefore participated in the combating of the vice through eradicating of illegal mining activities.They have reasoned their actions in the invariant that safety of the miners as well as the public is of great importance.They have also included the issue of police enforcement of the law and prevention of other instances of the illegality.Nevertheless, the SAPS has also come under a lot of scrutiny over the management of the situation at hand.
Critics have complained that they over emphasized the military approach and totally ignored the more human angle of the problem.
