About 600 families from the Seporong (Sotho word for railway) informal settlement vacated their homes to seek hide-out at the Randgate Community Hall.
Most of the families refuse to go back to Seporong for fear of intimidation by illegal miners, dubbed “Zuma Zamas.”
The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) who are often vocal about challenges facing mining communities said this is deeply concerning and shows an escalating violence and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Randfontein, within the Rand West City Local Municipality.
Sabelo Mnguni, Spokesperson of MACUA, said “the majority of those displaced are women and children, now sheltering under overcrowded and unsafe conditions at the Randgate Community Hall.
This is not a voluntary evacuation. It is forced displacement driven by fear, criminal violence, and the failure of the state to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect communities.”
MACUA who dislike the term Zama Zama, even agree that “communities in Randfontein are confronting heavily armed criminal syndicates operating in and around abandoned and poorly secured mine infrastructure.”
The organisation wants the immediate protection and dignified support for displaced families as well as their “safe, voluntary return only once security is guaranteed.”
Angry residents are now asking “where is police presence in Seporong?”
Mikateko Mahlatse, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Petroleum Resources, said these acts not only undermine the safety and security of communities but erodes the authority of the state and its institutions.
“Those responsible must be identified, apprehended and subjected to the full might of the law, without fear or favour.”
Picture: Supplied