A multi-disciplinary team raided Bontekooi informal settlement in the Nuttabooi mining area to clamp down on illegal mining and escalating crime in the Namakwa District of the Northern Cape.
A MULTI-disciplinary team led by the deputy provincial commissioner for policing, Major-General Luntu Ngubelanga, together with the Namakwa district commissioner, Brigadier Skalk Andrews, raided Bontekooi informal settlement in the Nuttabooi mining area on Monday to clamp down on illegal mining and escalating crime in the Namakwa District.
The team, comprising members and officials of the SAPS, the SANDF, the Department of Home Affairs, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Department of Justice and the Vetus Schola Security Company, arrested 24 undocumented persons for being in the country illegally during the operation, dubbed “Operation Vala Umgodi”.
Northern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Mashay Gamieldien said 18 of the suspects were men and six were women.
“A total of 11 Zimbabweans, one Mozambican and 12 Lesotho nationals were detained,” said Gamieldien.
She added that during the disruptive actions, the team seized and confiscated numerous mining implements and items linked to illicit mining activities, including generators, sieves, jack hammers, inverters, safety boots, overalls, gas cylinders, a television set, cooking utensils and gas stoves.
“The items were discovered in an unoccupied shack at the settlement,” said Gamieldien.
Major-General Ngubelanga said that the police would not allow the Northern Cape to be infiltrated by foreign nationals.
The provincial commissioner of the Northern Cape, Lieutenant-General Koliswa Otola, commended the collaborative efforts of all the role-players and their “relentless pursuit of eradicating illicit mining in the district”.
