Roodepoort community calls on govt to speed up plans to formalise artisanal mining
Their calls add to growing pressure on government to make artisanal and small-scale mining a safe and transparent sector that is able to attract investment and create jobs.
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe. Picture: @GovernmentZA/X
JOHANNESBURG - The community at the Jerusalem informal settlement in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, has called on the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to speed up plans to formalise artisanal mining.
Their calls add to growing pressure on government to make artisanal and small-scale mining a safe and transparent sector that is able to attract investment and create jobs.
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The community said that so far, their calls had fallen on deaf ears and they were worried that rampant illegal mining would continue unabated until the sector was formalised.
They raised their concerns on the back of an operation to rescue two illegal miners trapped at an abandoned gold mine in the area.
Community leader Zibuse Memela said: "Unemployment here is very difficult because many South Africans are not working.
"These people who enter these holes are from outside of South Africa, but even South Africans have a problem because left and right, they are not working. It becomes better when the government is coming with some projects to develop the area."