Protesters chant slogans and carry placards during a protest demanding government action on illegal gold mining in Accra, Ghana on October 3, 2024. It is estimated that the illegal mining industry is costing South Africa over R20 billion in lost sales, taxes, and royalties, says the writer. Picture: Nipah Dennis / AFP

Kim Heller

In his historical drama, Henry IV, penned in the mid-1500s, William Shakespeare wrote, “I speak of Africa and golden joys”. If he was alive today, the great English playwriter’s lyrics may well be less joyous. For through the ages, Africa has been robbed; its mineral wealth and ‘golden joys’ were brutally extracted in the building of foreign empires. Under the mantle of colonialism and imperialism, this pillage was declared lawful. Today the last remnants of Africa’s mineral wealth are being snatched up, by modern-day mining mercenaries.

A 2022 Interpol report refers to illegal mining as “one of the most lucrative crimes” and describes its evolution into “a flourishing enterprise” in many regions across the globe. The scale and impact of illegal mining is massive. Huge profits for illegal mining syndicates are made at the expense of country economies, vulnerable populations, and the environment. In the Central African region, gold smuggling is well organised, and systematic - illegal buyers collect gold from production sites and pass it through Cameroon or Uganda, to Asia (United Arab Emirates, India, and China), according to Interpol intelligence. In the DRC, 97% of official gold production is not registered and is being swiftly smuggled out of the country to Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi before it is exported to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Europe and Asia. In many conflict spots, illegal mining is controlled by non-state armed groups who finance their activities through control over mining sites and smuggling routes, as well as through extortion.

Speaking on the German news network DW, author and journalist, George Okachi, characterises illegal mining in Africa as a clandestine empire which has jackpotted the fortunes of mining groups, illegal buyers, corrupt government officials, and criminal elements. George Okachi cites how this billion-dollar shadow trade is “defying authorities from Congo to Ghana.” Okachi spoke empathetically of the desperation of the miners in the deep pits of the enterprise who look to illegal mining as a golden ticket out of poverty. But for most, it is more a death trap than a winning ticket.

In May 2019, Mining Weekly reported on a claim by London-based mining group, Gemfields, that illegal miners in Mozambique, mostly juveniles, were being controlled by middlemen, who took advantage of their desperate poverty. Many of these young miners risked their lives and were subject to slave-like conditions in Mozambique mines, while others profited from their agonising labour. Interpol’s research shows that the pool of illegal miners includes women and children.

A 2024 study by SWISSAID found that more than a ton of gold leaves the African continent every day undeclared. In 2022, approximately 435 tons of gold were smuggled out of Africa - valued at close to 31 billion USD. Gold smuggling more than doubled in Africa between 2012 and 2022 according to the study.

Most of the gold found its way to the United Arab Emirates (47%), Switzerland (21%) and India (12%). During these ten years, the UAE imported 2,569 tonnes of gold from Africa that was not declared for export by African countries.

It is estimated that the illegal mining industry is costing South Africa over R20 billion in lost sales, taxes, and royalties.

Over recent weeks, world attention has focussed on South Africa as several hundred illegal miners refused to surface from an abandoned mine in Stilfontein in the Northwest Province of the country. This is despite the threat from the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, to “smoke them out.” In the Minister’s own words, “We didn't send them there, and they didn't go down there with good intentions for the republic, so we can't help them.”

This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa was quick to characterise illegal mining as a criminal activity which has caused much anger and anguish across South Africa. Ramaphosa wrote how illegal miners are recruited by criminal gangs and are often part of organised crime syndicates. The President stated, “We need to be clear that the activities of these miners are illegal. They pose a risk to our economy, communities, and personal safety.”

Almost as an afterthought, Ramaphosa referred to the need for the mining industry to take responsibility for rehabilitating or closing mines that are no longer operational. Many multinational mining companies have been guilty of a reckless hit-and-run approach to mining in South Africa. Once profits have been made and resources exhausted, they leave the scene, without closing open shafts or doing the necessary and required rehabilitation. Despite this glaring lack of accountability which has seen abandoned mines turn into the rotten cavities of illegal mining, the government has failed to act against the formal mining industry. Worse still is that beneath a veneer of respectability, several licenced mining companies are allegedly buying minerals from Zama Zamas, according to a recent research study conducted by the Benchmark Foundation.

Ramaphosa’s twin strategy of setting up a task team involving members of the security cluster and South African National Defence Force personnel and increasing police presence at mines is no winning strategy. While there is an intersectionality between illegal mining and criminality, the one-dimensional characterisation is misleading and disingenuous. It fails to take into consideration, the structural and systemic drivers of illegal mining.

In a thought piece in the Business Day this week, Christopher Rutledge criticises Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, for framing the illegal mining issue as a problem of illegal immigration. By doing so, Rutledge argues that

Mantashe can successfully “divert the public's attention from the key economic questions of apartheid-type exclusion, which he and others are so keen to ensure is maintained.” Rutledge decries Mantashe’s efforts to keep his slate clean while scapegoating innocent, poor black people. Rutledge expresses the need to rather approach the issue of illegal mining with a wider and more holistic lens.

The government’s strategy on illegal mining vests on government might and misdirected xenophobia, rather than on an investment in socially responsible and developmental governance. A proper solutions pathway would include the passing of artisanal and small-scale mining policies. This would not only provide a substantial financial boost to the economy but would enhance the legitimacy and safety of the sector. But this is simply part of the puzzle. What is required in South Africa, and Africa is a hard look at the desperate socio-economic realities of the countries and its people, the glaring lack of economic opportunities, historical racial exclusion, job shortages and landlessness. All of this provides fertile ground for illegal mining. In addition, greater ownership and control of the local, regional, and global supply chains is needed so that the Continent starts to win from its minerals. Only then will we be able to speak again of Africa and her golden joys?

** Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa.

** The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The African.

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No win for Africa in the gamble of illegal mining