Calm was restored in Riverlea, Johannesburg on Tuesday following protests from angry residents who demanded urgent intervention from the government after being caught in the middle of alleged turf wars between rival gangs of illegal miners over the weekend.
Five bodies were found with bullet wounds on the weekend and are believed to be victims of gang wars over turn among illegal miners. This has led to Police Bheki Cele’s intervention where he promised to deploy police units in the area within 24 hours.
The residents blocked busy roads like Main Reef, Nasrec Road and Devon causing traffic jams. An angry community leader Njabulo Sekota said they were not safe because illegal miners popularly known as Zama-Zama’s have flooded their area. Sekota said the community is caught between gang fights and that there is always gun fire, especially at night.
“People who come from work around 6pm fear to walk or drive into their homes because Zama-Zamas are shooting at each other within our community. There have been so many incidents of people dying or getting injured because they got caught in the crossfire of these Zama-Zamas,” he said.
Another community member who spoke anonymously said police don’t have enough resources to deal with the illegal mining.
“My son doesn’t want to go to the shop anymore. Saturday was really bad. Five people in our community were shot dead and the police are outnumbered. It wasn’t long ago the police were hiding behind the high walls by the church, leopard crawling. The police in Langlaagte police station don’t have enough manpower,” he said.
Another community member Rudolf Singh called for the South African National Defence Force to be deployed in the area and said it was too dangerous for the community because the illegal miners jumped into their yards while shooting each other.
“The government must do something about us. We need the SANDF, especially in ZamiMpilo. These police are eating with these people and they take bribes from the Sothos who walk in massive groups terrorising us”.
Cele said the Tactical Response Team popularly known as Amabherethe were already deployed in the area and promised that they would root out the criminals in the area.
“Hold me on my words that from now on, we are going to change the situation. We are going to make sure that Zama-Zamas give the space to the people of this place starting from Zama Impilo to Riverlea. Life will be good,” he said.
