RESIDENTS camp in the open veld in Mohlakeng, where illegal mining happens.
This was after zama zamas killed each other for gold-bearing material in the West Rand.
Four illegal miners were killed at Mohlakeng extension 11 on Monday, 19 February.
When the SunTeam arrived at the scene, a group of women were found camping next to the crime scene, alleging that they knew the dead and those were their boyfriends.
Residents told Daily Sun that they heard gunshots firing nonstop and called the police to the scene.
“It’s been a while without hearing the gunshots. It was scary,” a resident said.
After being called by the community, the police started investigating and upon arrival, they arrived at the bush, walking distance from the community.
The bush is the area where illegal mining takes place.
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West Rand district commissioner General Fred Kekana said they've been conducting operations in the area.
“On our arrival, we found four people shot dead while one person was injured. From our investigations, we learnt that the illegal miners were loading gold-bearing material into a truck. After loading, some people came and robbed them of those bags and drove away with the gold-bearing materials to an unknown destination,” Kekana said.
When Daily Sun arrived at the scene, they found 28 gold-bearing material bags.
Kekana said that he suspects that the illegal miners were fighting for the material even though they were robbed of the materials from an illegal activity.
“We don’t have any further information, but we are investigating. We know the nationality of those who robbed others, and the four who were shot and killed come from two different countries near Mzansi,” he said.
He further said that the police will intensify their mobilisation of sources and informers to assist them in identifying the offenders.
The residents of extension 11 were fighting the police when they were removing the bags that were left, saying they wanted a share because the bags belonged to the alleged boyfriends who are zama zamas.
“This is a warning trend because some of the community people know who these people are but are not reporting the matter to the police,” Kekana said.
