Hundreds of informal miners‚ known as zama-zamas‚ marched to the Department of Mineral Resources in Pretoria on Tuesday. The miners‚ who mostly work in abandoned mine shafts and dumps‚ demanded the legalisation of their trade and the scrapping of the Mining Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). Their memorandum argued that the ban on informal mining in the MPRDA stops them from making an honest living. They come from communities where unemployment is rampant especially among young people. Harassment by mining security and police were two major complaints raised by the demonstrators. The zama-zamas mobilised under the banner of Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA)‚ an organisation formed in 2012 with the aim of uniting communities affected by large scale mining operations on their land. Meshack Mbangula‚ the national Organiser for MACUA‚ addressed the protesters outside the gates of the Department of Mineral Resources which were closed and protected by a line o...
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