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Local – The South African National Defence Union (SANDU) has warned against blaming illegal miners for the mass killing near Carletonville before police have identified any suspects. National secretary Pikkie Greeff said speculation could put innocent people at risk.
The death toll from the attack has risen from 17 to 18, with many more people injured. Police said they were investigating several leads, including robbery and disputes linked to illegal mining in the area, and a manhunt was underway.
“I’m no crime or law enforcement expert, but from the bit that we do know, I think one should be very careful of speculating about who’s responsible unless proper investigation work has been done and suspects have been identified. It’s easy to scapegoat a group of people like illegal miners or so, which is not necessarily to say that they are the perpetrators. So I think one must also be very careful of scapegoating and identifying easy targets,” Greeff said.
Soldiers Not a Quick Fix
Greeff acknowledged that illegal mining and related crime were a major problem in the area, which could explain why official reports pointed in that direction. He said information gathered by the union during the deployment pointed to turf wars between illegal mining groups.
He said illegal miners moved constantly through underground tunnels, used hideouts and warned one another about police movements. This made operations far more complex than simply entering mines and arresting people.
“One has to ask questions about the efficacy of the deployment plan itself. But I think the obvious answer to that is also that what a 140,000-strong police force couldn’t fix over the past decade is not going to be solved by 2,000 soldiers working to their assistance,” Greeff said.
Police Remain Responsible
Greeff said the defence force’s role was to assist the police rather than enforce the law, and that the police decided where operations took place and what was investigated. Responsibility for curbing illegal mining and gathering crime intelligence therefore rested with the police.
He said the union was not concerned about soldiers being deployed, as placing their lives at risk was part of their job. He warned, however, that communities were growing desperate and losing trust in law enforcement after incidents such as this mass killing.
“What we are concerned about as a union is that in a democracy we are using the military to deploy in the streets to do what is essentially a police function. That should never be normalised. But then, of course, South Africa’s crime rate is not normal,” Greeff said.
