Johannesburg - The DA has slammed the release of more than 700 illegal miners arrested last week following an SAPS blitz in the Kleinsee area in Northern Cape last week.
The party said it had not even been two days since illegal foreign miners were arrested before being released after Home Affairs officials failed to process them within the required 48 hours.
Last week, The Star reported the SAPS operation was aimed at addressing illegal mining in the district.
Northern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Mashay Gamieldien said the operation, led by Lieutenant General Otola, saw 867 persons apprehended and arrested for various offences, of whom the majority were undocumented persons.
According to a police report, the operation also focused on illegal mining activities in the Kleinzee area, during which numerous digging equipment and implements were confiscated.
The DA’s spokesperson on Home Affairs, Adrian Roos said the Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi must account for the incompetence that had cost tthe SAPS and communities around Kleinzee a great deal of suffering at the hands of illegal miners.
“Community members have already reported miners returning back to Kleinzee, where illegal mining activities have threatened and displaced community members,” Roos said.
Roos said the party, in their recent parliamentary oversight visit to immigration services, raised the issue of the court process to convict illegal miners from Kleinzee.
“This process to convict illegal miners was being stalled by Home Affairs' failure to bring proof of illegal status to the court. The illegal foreign miners facing court proceedings do not get deported because the court cannot proceed. Home Affairs committed to looking into the issue, but it is clear they did not do so and have been found asleep on the job,” Roos said.
He added the party would take the matter up with the home affairs committee.
“The DA will write to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to demand answers from Minister Motsoaledi as to what actions were taken after the meeting of April 30, 2023, how many illegal foreign nationals are being released from prisons and Lindela itself because Home Affairs officials do not process them in time, and why Home Affairs failed to plan and capacitate the operation to process the arrested miners at Kleinzee when they were fully aware of the operation,” Roos said.
The Star