About 400 families from the Sporong informal settlement in Randfontein, west of Johannesburg, say they were forced to flee their homes following repeated and violent attacks by illegal miners.
Residents allege that the miners regularly broke into their homes, demanding money and other valuables. They claim their lives were turned into a nightmare, with the attackers threatening to kidnap their children for ransom if they failed to comply.
Zanele Morapedi described some of the terrifying experiences endured by the community.
“They come in large numbers. When they enter your house, they surround your shack,” she said.
“Sometimes four or five of them come in. If you don’t have money or cellphones, they threaten to take your children.”
Morapedi added that in one incident, a woman’s shack was broken into and the attackers threatened “to cut her husband’s fingers with a makhamisa [bolt cutter].”
Another resident, Irene Mojahi, said the violence began towards the end of September, initially targeting spaza shops before spreading to community members.
“In November, people were killed. When they come, they close the whole street so no one can leave,” she said.
Mojahi said she has since sent her children away to safety and refuses to return to the settlement.
“Police can rather arrest me. I’m not leaving this hall and I’m not going back to that dangerous place,” she said.
She said they struggle to bath because there is no privacy and life has become hard to leave but it’s better than going back to Sporong.
Residents are now calling on government to urgently intervene and provide them with protection and alternative accommodation.
Community leader Makwetlane Sello said residents did not choose to settle in Sporong but were relocated there during the development of the nearby Montrose Mega City housing project.
“The Montrose Mega City Development collapsed over time. We were told we could not be moved elsewhere, so we continued staying at Sporong,” Sello said.
The Montrose Mega City project, launched in 2017 as a flagship initiative to address Gauteng’s housing backlog, was expected to deliver more than 10,500 housing units at an estimated cost of R11 billion. However, the project stalled following the liquidation of the contractor, with reports indicating that R46 million had already been spent before construction halted.
Sello said it was only after illegal miners, known as zama-zamas, began targeting residents that the community fled to the Randgate Community Hall for safety.
However, the Rand West City Local Municipality, led by Deputy Executive Mayor Nontombi Molatlhegi, has since instructed the displaced residents to vacate the hall.
Molatlhegi could not be reached for comment.
