Kagiso. From our correspondent.
The collective and repeated rape of 8 women on August 29 by men dressed in blankets (the traditional dress in Lesothoa country entirely landlocked in the territory of South Africa) caused consternation among the inhabitants of Kagiso, a township west of Johannesburg in South Africa, surrounded by old gold mines. The victims were kidnapped while participating in the filming of a music video. In the days that followed, the police arrested some 150 illegal miners. But that was not enough for the inhabitants of Kagiso who, on August 4, proceeded to a real manhunt, tracking down the clandestine gold washers, called the “zama-zamas”. Most of them from neighboring countries, they are accused of being responsible for a sharp rise in crime – especially those from Lesotho, the most violent.
The police intervened late
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The police intervened, but belatedly. A body was found after the mobilization of the inhabitants of Kagiso without it being possible at this stage to make a formal link with the events. © Valerie Hirsch
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We entered a tunnel underground and captured four zama-zamas from Mozambique
welcomed Thursday on the spot Lebogang Xalaba, a resident of the township. When they were brought back, people beat them, until the police intervened. We have been complaining for years and nothing has changed! Recently, they raped two women, security guards, in our cemetery.
A body – which we did not know at the time if his death was linked to the events of August 4 – was found on the spot by the police, who intervened late to disperse the inhabitants, after having begged them not to do justice themselves. A message that is hard to get across: We do not trust the police, who are corrupt!
exclaims Xalaba.
The gang rape site is a few kilometers from Kagiso. Just opposite, a dozen families live in a small social housing, wedged between huge slag heaps. After the rape, we set fire to the building you see, which housed zama-zamas from Lesotho
, explains Paul Ntshangase. Just behind, the ore was crushed to extract the gold. The equipment has been confiscated by the police and the zama-zamas have fled or are hiding underground.
Deadly clashes between gangs
In February they raped three of our young girls
says Ntshangase, who himself was attacked in May. They pointed a gun to my head and took my phone. Right after, they killed a neighbor. When we go shopping, we have to pay them “rent”. They have been there since 2015 and the police have never done anything. We hope that following the gang rape of the actresses, the situation will finally change!
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Paul Ntshangase shows land used by gold miners near the Kagiso district. © Valerie Hirsch
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About 30,000 zama-zamas operate in the thousands of mines in the country. They are also active in the lucrative sector of copper cable theft and, more recently, in rubbish dumps, where they ransom the little hands who engage in recycling. Those in Lesotho seem to have taken over, after deadly clashes between gangs. I saw zama-zamas, cleaning 27 AK47 submachine guns in a working gold mine
, says Willem Els, of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. In 2007, this former police officer took part in operations in clandestine mines: They were trapping the entrance and throwing homemade grenades at us. Since then, they have become much more violent. They rely on corruption, at all levels of the police. They bribe the security guards. And since there was no political will to fight against them, the situation today is out of control”.
In the aftermath of the manhunt which therefore killed at least one person, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on Friday August 5 for calm. Emphasizing that he understood the turmoil with the rape of young women he hammered: We South Africans cannot tolerate mob justice. We must address these issues collectively, within the framework of the law.”
The Lesotho government, for its part, announced that it was strengthening security measures at its border to limit illegal crossings and condemned the gang rape which angered South Africans.
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