South Africans Use Machetes to Attack Illegal Miners in Gang Rape Case

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned “mob justice,” perpetrated this week by South Africans on illegal miners. This was in reaction to the brutal gang rape that took place last Friday at an abandoned mine close Krugersdorp.

“We also witnessed mob justice being performed out today,” Ramaphosa said during a televised speech speech at South Africa’s Presidential Social Sector Summit in Boksburg, August 5.

“People are angry and go out to confront a lot of people. There is mob justice”, eNCA quotes Ramaphosa saying.

The president spoke out about mob violence that began on August 4, and continued until August 5, against illegal Krugersdorp mining camp members.

Al Jazeera detailed some examples of the violence on Thursday, writing:

Thousands of angry residents in the South African city of Krugersdorp attacked a group of illegal miners with machetes, golf clubs and hammers after a gang rape last week shocked the nation.

” The mob tore down their camp in Krugersdorp’s Kagiso Township on Thursday. They also barricaded the roads with stones and burned tires in protest at the presence of the miners, who they claim are responsible for the high crime rates in the region.

Some residents stripped them of their clothing and beat others before they handed over the police. To disperse the people, police kept their distance and used stun grenades to douse them with.

Local residents were responsible for the attacks against the camps of illegal miners, also known colloquially as “zama zamas”. Local residents are often frustrated at the alleged inaction of police against the established and nefarious activities that the miners have in their area. Many zama-zamas entered South Africa from Lesotho and Zimbabwe illegally.

“Residents in several parts of Gauteng’s West Rand began a rampage against zama zamas following the brutal gang rapes of eight women at a Krugersdorp mine heap a week earlier,” eNCA reported August 5.

“Kagiso residents in the meantime say that there is not enough visible police,” reported the news agency.

Krugersdorp can be found in South Africa’s Gauteng Province. Kagiso, however, is located within Krugersdorp.

South African authorities suspect that a zama zama gang of unknown numbers committed a brutal, hours-long gang rape of eight women at an abandoned mine near Krugersdorp on July 28. As they tried to shoot a music video, the gang of armed men surrounded the women who were mostly models. Then, the gang began raping the girls repeatedly with gunpoint.

“Young people there between 19 and 37 were raped, some by 10 men. You can imagine the trauma in that situation,” South African Police Minister Bheki Cele told eNCA on July 30.

One anonymous survivor of the gang rape described some of the males who raped her as “young boys,” to South Africa’s Sunday Times on July 31.

” They kept telling younger boys to rape them and they’d hit and force them to,” said a woman who booked the models to the video shoot to the newspaper.

” The young boys then took us one at a time to the bushes. She said that the last time they had raped her was when I was standing in front of them.

South African police have arrested more than 80 men, mostly zama zamas, in the week since the July 28 mass rape in Krugersdorp. The number of suspects involved in the gang rape remains a mystery, though authorities have only brought charges against the accused for illegal immigration and theft.

South African Police Minister Bheki Cele told eNCA on July 30 that “DNA testing and identification parades will take place soon to see if any of the suspects were among the group that raped the women.”

” Our laboratories which are currently grinding, will be prioritised, he said.

South Africa has the world’s third-highest rape rate after Lesotho and Botswana. The government of South Africa recorded nearly 11,000 rape cases within the first three months of 2022.

Read More