No police have been deployed to the Angelo informal settlement in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, on Friday. This comes after 17 people died following a nitric oxide gas leak on Wednesday night.
The gas originated from a cylinder at a shack where suspected illegal miners worked.
Taxis are parked at the entrance of the informal settlement, while some residents can be seen doing their laundry. Children are playing on the gravel as life is returning to normal.
The Boksburg community is still reeling in shock as they try to come to terms with the deaths.
Boksburg Gas Leak | Residents say they reported the incident earlier to authorities:
Delayed Police Response
On Thursday Gauteng Police Commissioner Elias Mawela said the state of the Angelo informal settlement, resulted in a delayed police response. Mawela says it is difficult for police or emergency services to gain access to the informal settlement.
“It’s not only difficult for the police to access the area but for all the emergency services because even the ambulance, even the fire fighters cannot even enter this particular space. It affects our response time. The communities here complain that you call the police, they take time to respond. Obviously there’s no address. There’s no street name. There’s no lighting, it is congested. So the living condition for the people here, so bad and if the living conditions are like this, it makes the criminals to also come and harbour in that particular space. So it is conducive for criminals to come and stay in that particular area.”
Army deployment
Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, says the province supports the calls from the Boksburg community to deploy the army in the province to deal with the issue of illegal miners and the lives being lost as a result of their trade.
Lesufi says the firepower of police needs to be strengthened.
“The community is calling for the army, we have called for the army as well. The process of deploying the army is highly regulated, even when they are deployed, they can’t openly engage. They need to give support to the police and other things. We need a combination of many things. The army can assist but they can’t be here permanently. It must be a limited period. The call for the army is correct, we support that, but I believe we need to strengthen the fire power of (the) police force.”
Boksburg Gas Leak | Gauteng Premier calls for a special strategy to curb illegal mining:
