SA Army heavy armour specialists turned border guards put a small spoke in the wheels of the country’s illegal mining sector, confiscating over R80 000 worth of explosives near the Beitbridge port of entry.
A 1 SA Tank Regiment foot patrol armed with R4 assault rifles, as opposed to their normal Olifant main battle tank (BMT) armament, east of a support base near the border town Musina on 2 January spotted three “unidentified individuals descending from the old bridge”.
Joint Tactical Headquarters Limpopo corporate communication officer Captain Moses Semono has it they “dropped their bags and fled” when seeing the soldiers.
Closer inspection revealed explosives identified as Superpower 90 by the SA Police Service (SAPS) national explosives unit, widely called the bomb squad. The explosive is a packaged emulsion one used in priming applications and as a column explosive in surface and underground mining as well as general blasting. Photos show the explosive packaged in tubes and valued at R82 300 with no total weight given.
Bapong, some 30 km from Brits in the North West province, is the latest illegal mining site to hit South African news headlines. Reports have it police arrested more than 1 500 illegal miners – zama zamas – in December with 121, including Basotho and Mozambicans, deported. Excavators and other machinery used to load and move chrome ore was confiscated from Bapong, where excavations to access ore-bearing material were ongoing in close proximity to occupied houses.
SA Army soldiers have been deployed to support police attempting to curb illegal mining under the Vala Umgodi banner with four dying after apparent suffocation while on guard duty in a shipping container at a disused mine in North West last July. Exact numbers of soldiers assigned this duty are not made public by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF).
Apart from large swathes of North West, in search of chrome and gold, zama zamas are and have been active in the Free State, Gauteng and Northern Cape provinces, in what SA government spokesmen call “a scourge”.
In addition to confiscating explosives and other contraband, SANDF soldiers on border patrol duty had a busy festive season period. Semono reported an unusual influx of people in Limpopo on 26 December, when soldiers from 1 SA Tank Regiment intercepted and arrested 1 174 undocumented persons from Zimbabwe attempting to enter South Africa through illegal border crossings.
“This marks the first time our members have had to manage such a massive influx during this period of the festive season,” Semono stated, adding that uncharacteristic aggressiveness of the individuals involved compounded the situation. Rifleman TM Mokoena sustained a stab wound to his forearm while defending himself against an undocumented person who attempted an assault. The soldier was able to “neutralise” the threat without resorting to deadly force. The undocumented persons were handed over to the South African Immigration Services.
Other successes recorded by 1 SA Tank Regiment included the confiscation of R3.4 million worth of illicit cigarettes that were being smuggled by truck from Zimbabwe. The illicit goods as well as the driver were handed over to the South African Police Service for further processing.
In another incident, 1 SA Tank Regiment soldiers near Beitbridge noticed suspects carrying suspicious boxes and upon approaching them, they dropped the boxes and ran. Abandoned goods recovered included 358 pairs of Nike sneakers valued at R716 000; 30 pairs of Adidas sneakers valued at R51 000; and 328 pairs of Adidas slides valued at R295 200.
Border patrols were marred by a fatal accident on 25 December that claimed the lives of two members of the Military Police. They were on routine patrol duties from the SA Army Macadamia base close to the Mozambique/South Africa border in a military vehicle which was swept away during an attempted crossing of a flooded river.