Giwusa warned that soaring gold prices and deepening unemployment have created fertile ground for criminal syndicates and dangerous, unregulated mining.
With gold prices now exceeding $5 000 an ounce, GIWUSA President Mametlwe Sebei said the surge underscored the need for government intervention to prevent mines from lying idle and to consider expropriation where necessary.
Speaking to Channel Africa on Wednesday, Sebei said SA’s mining towns were facing a dual crisis: catastrophic unemployment and escalating violence linked to illegal mining syndicates.
Sebei noted that the gold mining sector had shed an estimated 600 000 jobs since its peak in 1979, when nearly 700 000 workers were employed, compared to fewer than 100 000 today.
“The levels of unemployment are catastrophic,” he said, adding that although platinum mining has grown, it has not been enough to offset the economic collapse in former gold‑mining towns.
In this vacuum, he said, organised criminal syndicates had entrenched themselves by exploiting desperate former mineworkers and communities.
“There has been an explosive, exponential and unregulated growth of artisanal mining,” Sebei said. “In the absence of state regulation, syndicates have stepped in, imposing horrendous terror on miners and communities, rapes, murders, and violence.”
He pointed to the recent violence in Borong, where residents reportedly fled their homes to seek shelter in a school, as a vivid example of the scale of the crisis.
Sebei said the record‑high gold price has intensified the risks, driving artisanal miners deep underground, sometimes 2 to 3 kilometres, into abandoned shafts such as those at Stilfontein.
“What used to be scavenging for surface residues has now become deep‑level operations,” he said. “The price is such that it neutralises the high cost of extraction that previously made these mines unprofitable.”
He noted that around 700 gold shafts have been abandoned since 1979, many of which still contain viable reserves.
Sebei criticised government for relying on foreign investors, saying mining companies in London, Canada and the US were not returning to reopen shafts that they had long deemed unprofitable.
“We need government to expropriate,” he said. “Abandoned mines already fall to the state by law. Those under prolonged care and maintenance must also be taken over.”
He outlined a two‑tier proposal:
Industrial‑scale mines with substantial reserves
- Should be placed under public ownership
- Government should recapitalise operations
- Tens of thousands of jobs could be created in affected communities
Mines with low‑grade or limited reserves
- Should be allocated to regularised artisanal mining cooperatives
- Co-operatives should receive equipment, safety training and regulatory support
- A state‑backed buyer should be established to prevent reliance on illicit traders
This, Sebei argued, would provide safe employment, stabilise communities and weaken the influence of criminal networks.
Sebei warned that heavy‑handed policing would not resolve the crisis.
“Around 12 million people are unemployed. They are desperate. The idea that you can simply criminalise or kill all these people is not realistic,” he said. “We need solutions, and the solution is right before us.”
–ChannelAfrica–
