The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) condemns in the strongest terms the rampant and illegal digging of minerals in and around communities in the North West province. These unlawful mining operations represent a direct assault on the lives, safety, dignity, and long-term livelihoods of working-class communities.
Illegal mining activities expose communities to intolerable levels of noise, dust, pollution, and environmental degradation. Homes are cracked by blasting and heavy machinery, air and water sources are contaminated, and residents are left to live with permanent health risks. Even more alarming is the destruction of long-term household and community wealth, particularly housing and land, which for working-class families represent their only form of savings and intergenerational security.
What makes this situation even more unacceptable is the failure of the state to act proactively. Law enforcement agencies appear only after irreparable damage has already been done. This raises serious and unavoidable questions: Why does the police act only reactively, once communities have already suffered harm? Why are these operations allowed to continue openly for weeks or months without intervention? Who is protecting these criminal syndicates, and who is benefiting from their operations?
Equally disturbing is the silence and inaction of some community leadership structures. Where were community leaders, councillors, and local authorities when these illegal activities began? Why were early warnings from residents ignored? Leadership that fails to act in defence of its people is leadership that has abdicated its responsibility.
This situation is not an isolated failure but a serious indictment of the entire system of governance. It reflects a breakdown in regulation, law enforcement, political accountability, and community protection. The illegal extraction of minerals thrives in conditions of corruption, neglect, and collusion, while ordinary people pay the price with their health, safety, and futures.
The law is clear: the responsibility to issue mining and prospecting licenses rests with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. There have been persistent reports of undue delays, massive backlogs, and administrative paralysis in the licensing process. The Minister cannot evade responsibility for these failures. This regulatory vacuum creates the conditions for a dangerous “free-for-all,” allowing illegal operations to flourish unchecked.
SAFTU has long called for the proper regulation of mining activities, including decisive action to stop illegal operations. This uncontrolled environment not only endangers surrounding communities, but also places workers employed in these irregular operations at extreme risk, with no safety standards, no labour protections, and no accountability. Workers are exploited, injured, and sometimes killed in the shadows of a lawless mining economy.
Beyond regulation, SAFTU reaffirms its principled demand for the nationalisation and socialisation of South Africa’s mineral wealth. Minerals belong to the people, not to private mining conglomerates, criminal syndicates, or politically connected BEE tycoons. Only through public ownership and democratic control can mining be properly regulated, environmentally sustainable, and socially beneficial. Communities, in a regulated and transparent framework, must take control of what rightfully belongs to them, ensuring that mineral wealth is used for development, decent work, housing, infrastructure, and social services, not private accumulation and elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls for:
• Immediate shutdown of all illegal mining operations in affected communities.
• Swift and decisive action against those responsible, including financiers, operators, and any officials complicit through action or omission.
• Proactive policing and intelligence-led interventions to prevent illegal mining before damage occurs.
• Full environmental and structural assessments of affected areas, with compensation for communities whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.
• Accountability from local and provincial authorities, including community leadership structures that failed to act.
The mineral wealth of this country cannot continue to be looted at the expense of the working class and the poor. Communities are not sacrificial zones. SAFTU stands with affected residents and will continue to demand justice, accountability, and a system of governance that serves the people, not criminals and profiteers.
Issued on behalf of the SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku:
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
