Johannesburg - When Bongi Gumede* saw the large group of illegal miners heading her way on the path to school, she knew there would be trouble.
Some of the men hid their guns with blankets draped over their arms. Others carried knobkieries or brandished sticks.
Bongi, a Grade 6 learner at Durban Deep Primary School near Roodepoort, never made it to school on Wednesday.
Instead, she fled to the nearby sanctuary of Claw, or Community Led Animal Welfare, near Soweto, which provides veterinary care to indigent communities. Its founder, Cora Bailey, was a few kilometres away in Matholesville, an informal settlement, trying to save the life of an illegal miner and suspected criminal who the group had earlier stabbed and brutally beaten.
When Bongi, whose school is surrounded by illegal mining activities, met the group, they were allegedly on their way to the homes of the man’s accomplices, believed to be behind a spate of violent crimes in Durban Deep.
“I was so scared when I saw those men,” said Bongi quietly.
The local residents of Durban Deep had seemingly come to an unusual arrangement with the group of men: that they remove the criminals in their midst.
“When you go to sleep and you wake up here, you praise God. People are getting killed like flies - there is so much crime, shootings and rape,” said Theresa Mashego*, who witnessed the attacks.
“You can’t leave your house after 5pm. The police don’t do anything. All these things led us to take a stand.
“We held a meeting with the Basotho illegal miners where it was agreed that they must make the first step and fight this group of criminals in their ranks or they must leave Durban Deep. We don’t want people to be killed in mob justice, but we don’t want innocent people from our community killed.”
Residents believe the men - a gang of about eight - led the shooting of a local spaza shop owner, who survived, and the gang rape of his wife last week.
A month ago, Carlos Shibotse’s two children - Bernard, 21, and Marmory, 19 - were shot, allegedly by the same group. His daughter remains in hospital.
“I am happy something is being done but I don’t want these men to be killed with this mob justice. We have cases with the police and want proper justice,” said Shibotse.
A local community leader, who did not want to be named, warned that there would be more incidents of mob justice after the Basotho illegal miners had “taken the initiative”.
“These people (the gang) are greedy. They don’t want to work like the other illegal miners.”
Police said no arrests had been made.
*Not their real names
The Star