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Kagiso residents block illegal mine holes as they search for Zama Zamas

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The residents of Kagiso in Mogale City, on Gauteng’s West Rand have been blocking illegal mine holes as they continue to search for Zama Zamas in the area. Locals earlier torched shacks believed to belong to the illegal miners, most of whom are foreign nationals.

Locals say the illegal miners have been committing crimes in the area including rape and murder. A large police contingent is continuing to monitor the protest and have fired teargas to disperse locals.

The community is adamant at this stage, they’re not going to retreat, and instead they want police to move away. They say they want police to do their job. There is quite a heightened police presence in the area. There’s a chopper that continues to hover over the particular area, where there’s quite a number of these holes that have been open to allow for this illegal activity.

VIDEO: Krugersdorp – Kagiso residents demand police leave so Mogale City shutdown can continue:

Residents have demolished some structures used by illegal miners at a house in extension eight, west of Johannesburg. Residents have taken to the streets in protest against the Zama Zamas following last week’s gang rape of eight women in Krugersdorp allegedly by the illegal miners.

Angry Kagiso residents say they are fed up and want all the illegal miners out of the township. Residents’ have descended on a house in extension 8 where they demolished the shacks where they have been conducting their operations from.

The owner of the house who prefers to remain anonymous says the illegal miners have been renting in her yard for about four years. She says she has been asking them to leave since last year but they have been refusing.

She says she was not aware that what they have been doing was illegal. But only became concerned when she started seeing police coming to get bribes.

She says the illegal miners paid her R6 000 per month which has helped her put food on the table as she is unemployed and could not afford to take care of her family.

VIDEO: Krugersdorp – Clampdown on suspected zama zamas in Witpoortjie on the West Rand:

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