Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has assured residents of the Sporong informal settlement that a police Nyala will be stationed in the area for the next seven days while a special unit deals with illegal mining activities. He first went to the informal settlement to assess the situation before meeting displaced residents sheltering at the Randgate community hall in Randfontein. More than 600 people left all their belongings at the informal settlement, took their children, packed all they could carry and fled to the hall in Randfontein due to violence and alleged extortion by zama-zamas.
Addressing residents, Lesufi said he was not there to point fingers or apportion blame but to find solutions to the crisis they were facing. He was accompanied by MECs for social development Faith Mazibuko, human settlements Tasneem Motara and infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo. Gauteng police commissioner Lt-Gen Tommy Mthombeni also joined the visit.
Lesufi said an agreement had been reached to prioritise the most vulnerable residents. Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi speaking to one of the residents of Sporong informal settlement in Randfontein, who fled their homes as they were being terrorised by illegal miners.Video:@J_chabalalapic.twitter.com/W7RSl26TfN “We have agreed that those who are ill, those with small children and the elderly will be taken to homes (immediately),” he said. I was told that most of you do not want to go back home, but for those who do, there will be a police Nyala in the area for the next seven days.
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Police will be there 24 hours a day to guard those homes He told residents who were approved for housing subsidies that they would be allocated homes and informed when to move. Those who had not yet registered for housing were given an opportunity to do so, he said.
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