Illegal mining in South Africa: a standoff between illegals and government

 

forcing illegal miners out of the mines.

bad government? No. Many of these are essentially enslaved and kept there and the government is now trying to rescue them.

LINK and LINK third report more here:not mentioned: Aside from those making money giving them food, the reports never mention who is buying the gold and processing it.

Describing the conditions in the shaft, which the police have sought to check through camera surveillance, Mchunu said six to seven people who are at the top of the shaft are “commanding the whole thing”.“The food and water that trickle down would be under the control of those people. … They command everything there, and people below are kept against their will,” he said.,

it is not just exploiting the miners, but the crime wave associated with the business...

BBC Report. 

Illegal mining is a lucrative business across many of South Africa's mining towns. Since December last year, nearly 400 high-calibre firearms, thousands of bullets, uncut diamonds and money have been confiscated from illegal miners. This is part of an intensive police and military operation to stop the practice that has severe environmental implications.

The standoff makes it sound like bad government vs poor miners (who often are working this dangerous job because of poverty and unemployment). But it is more complicated than that, of course, because it is run by organized crime syndicates.

moneyweb reports:The illicit gold trade is loosely organised into a pyramid structure. At the top are white-collar criminals who launder gold from zama zamas into the legal gold market, with a hierarchy of buyers and middlemen beneath them. The miners are at the bottom...In Stilfontein, working in abandoned mines became impossible without paying them steep fees.One zama zama told GroundUp that it costs around R10 000 to enter and R25 000 to return. Local gold buyers would often front these expenses in return for a cut of the gold the miners produced. Many zama zamas became trapped in debt while underground, a cycle worsened by the high cost of food, which they paid for in gold.

many are immigrants from Zimbabwe or Mozambique.

Moneyweb has more reporting on the illegals behind this atrocity.

very complicated: of course politicians and mining corporations are involved.

no one wants to take the steps that are necessary. It’s like drugs on the Cape Flats. It’s very, very, very lucrative this business. So the kingpins who are involved, the politicians, the corporations, the security companies, the labour brokers and so on, who are all involved, don’t want this to end and they don’t want it to be legalised and regulated and controlled because that way they can’t get the gold as cheaply as what they’re getting it at the moment.

I still can't find the stories of those running the logistics behind these organizations. 

China is investing lots of money in South Africa and Zimbabwe mining but legal mines.

LINK

but no information about who is behind the illegal mining and diverting gold there into a legal market.

there is a lot of criminality behind the illegal mining. according to thie Univ Witwaterand report part of the problem is lack of laws that allow legal means to get the left over gold out of these mines

the result? 

Illicit trade of gold from artisanal and small-scale mining is now also being seen as a threat to international security. The World Gold Council estimates that as much as 20% of annual gold supply and 80% of gold mining employment comes from a supply chain controlled by criminal gangs and armed groups, abetted by corrupt governments.

so, alas, the story of the seige of miners by a government trying to shut down the operation misses the complexity of the story.

Russia recruiting African soldiers for the Ukraine

 I did note in past posts about Russian mercenaries in the Sudan and North Africa.

But today's Strategypage has an essay about recruiting Africans to join their fight in the Ukraine. 

Some of these are of course Africans studying or living in Russia (before the cold war ended, a lot of Africans got scholarships to study in Eastern Europe or in Russia: Sometimes the training was good, e.g. doctors, but it also included a lot of political indoctrination back then, However, the help from the USSR was seen as good by some, in contrast to the exploitation by European countries. One wonders where the atrocities of the Wagner group in the Sudan (or the presence of Ukrainians in several conflicts there) etc and the economic exploitation of China comes into this: I should note that I am no longer in touch with what is going on in Africa.

However today's essay is about the missionary outreach of the Russian Orthodox church in Africa. 

Currently Africa has over 730 million Christians, the largest number of any region in the world. Russian Orthodox Church missionaries are actively seeking new converts from other Christian sects as well as Moslem Africans.

 the problem: The Russian Orthodox church is a quasi religious organization that is associated with the state and obeys their policies. Unlike the west,where 800 years ago the separation of church and state was pushed through, this is not true for Russia.

and now the Russian government is pushing converts to join Mother Russia to help them support the military (non combat roles) and of course with promise of good payment, some of these volunteers (and students studying in Russia) end up as soldiers.

this Reuters article from last year is about one African student who joined the Wagner group fighting in the Ukraine.

Wikipedia article notes the number of Orthodox in various countries around the world (something that the western Protestant oriented MSM is blind to).

but yes there is a Wikipedia page on the Russian Orthodoxy in Africa. and notes the changes in jurisdiction of the Orthodox in that continent in recent years.

Masaman has a short video about the Orthodox Christians in the world

the unforgotten repeated wars of Sudan

 The headlines shout all about Gaza Genocide, but the deaths and refugees there are small next to other wars around the world. (Syria, Chcchnya,  Rohingye from Burma to name a few).

The worst genocide is in Sudan.

of course the expert wants the US to go in and voila make peace there. But why? It is Europe who messed the area up, and before that it was the Ottoman Empire and Muslim extremists who messed up the area.

 Sounds like the Europeans want TeamAmerica World police to fix it, so they can then criticize the USA and their policies. But the election of Trump suggests that the US is tired of being the world policeman while an affluent Europe sits back and ridicules the USA. 

And with Trumpieboy as president, they are chomping at the bits to find why he is the great Satan. (just like they did when Reagan was President)...

there is a Russian aspect of this: the Wagner Group is working with the rebels.

it's about gold....

this is a recent report on the Wagner group in the central African republic.:

Russia used to offer oodles of scholarships to Africans during the cold war: Often the degrees were useless and mainly learning propaganda.

Actually if the want Africans to succeed, they should teach them Chinese, since China is running the economy in many African countries. But that is another story for another day.

FIGHTING TERRORISM BY BUILDING UP CIVIL SOCIETY

This is from a military site and is about the importance of building civil institutions so that people don't turn to extremists to fix things.

LINK

Nigeria, warmly referred to as “Big Brother” by many people across Africa, teeters on the edge of chaos. Discontent among Nigerians has reached a boiling point, and their voices of frustration are growing louder. The protests that took place across the country from August 1–10 were a cry for help, a call to action, and a demand for change.

Those protests, organized under the hashtag #EndBadGovernance, have largely subsided, but unrest continues to smolder in a handful of states with frangible stability and an especially aggrieved citizenry who have a distrust of security and governing entities. Their continued dissatisfaction may well reemerge as further protests or manifest more broadly in unrest and conflict that could turn violent. However, it is more likely that the protest movement will slowly dissipate and that the government response will not fully address their concerns.

full essay here.

Preventing Future Violence and Unrest – Lessons Learned from Nigerian Civil Society and Recent Protests 

by Tammy Palacios 

August 22, 2024 

Complex Emergencies and Humanitarian Crises 

18 min read

Nigerians are staging a protest over hardship and bad governance, tagged #EndBadGovernance, in Ojota, Lagos, Nigeria, on Aug. 2, 2024. (Photo by Adekunle Ajayi)

Mpox outbreak in Central Africa

 https://www.nytimes.com/card/2024/08/29/world/africa/mpox-outbreak-africa-congo

CDC discussion 

since january 1, 2024, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported more than 31,000 suspect mpox cases and nearly 1,000 deaths. 

There have also been confirmed clade I cases in Central African Republic (CAR), which borders DRC to the north. Clade I mpox occurs regularly in ROC and CAR, but the new cases appear to be linked to spread from DRC. 

In late July 2024, the disease spread to countries that are not known to be endemic for the virus that causes mpox: Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, which sit on the eastern border of DRC, and Kenya, which has reported cases of travel-associated mpox only. Although contact tracing is ongoing, some cases have links to DRC. Person-to-person transmission has occurred during this outbreak, including through sexual contact, household contact, and within healthcare settings, when personal protective equipment was not available.

CDC is working with Ministries of Health and in-country partners across the region on disease surveillance, laboratory capacity including testing materials, strengthening workforce capacity, case investigation, case management, infection prevention and control, border health, and risk communication and community engagement.

In some provinces, patients have acquired infection through contact with infected dead or live wild animals, household spread, or patient care (transmitted when appropriate PPE wasn't used or available); a high proportion of cases have been reported in children younger than 15 years of age.

 

In other provinces, the cases are associated with sexual contact among men who have sex with men and female sex workers and their contacts. These are the first reported cases of sexual transmission with clade I mpox.

more here

The Republic of the Congo (ROC), which borders DRC to the west, declared a clade I mpox outbreak in April 2024. There have also been confirmed clade I cases in Central African Republic (CAR), which borders DRC to the north. Clade I mpox occurs regularly in ROC and CAR, but the new cases appear to be linked to spread from DRC. In late July 2024, the disease spread to countries that are not known to be endemic for the virus that causes mpox: Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, which sit on the eastern border of DRC, and Kenya, which has reported cases of travel-associated mpox only. Although contact tracing is ongoing, some cases have links to DRC. Person-to-person transmission has occurred during this outbreak, including through sexual contact, household contact, and within healthcare settings, when personal protective equipment was not available. CDC is working with Ministries of Health and in-country partners across the region on disease surveillance, laboratory capacity including testing materials, strengthening workforce capacity, case investigation, case management, infection prevention and control, border health, and risk communication and community engagement.

a readable Summary of epidemic in Legal Insurrection.

reports that after a year the vaccine doesn't give protection even after two doses.

Not mentioned: Is this in all cases or just in the MSM type who have HIV?

the reason for western countries to get worried about this disease is partly because it could morph into smallpox like epidemics, but also because mpox in the west is a sexually transmitted disease (unlike Africa, where touching lesions will spread it especially to children because of lack of lots of water and basic protective equipment such as gloves)....

the dirty little secret is that sex tourists have been bringing cases into Europe and the USA, and instead of stressing behavior modification or shutting down places in the west where the disease spreads, they will rely on vaccine. 

as for the deaths: remember: 

 

Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in DRC with 27.3 million malaria cases and 24,880 malaria deaths reported in 2022,

Pogos, Scams, spies, and the Chinese mafia

when my granddaughter tried to take a plane from Manila to Thailand for a job teaching, the government stopped her, until paper work and investigation of her and her job offer could be investigated.

They explained that Thailand was a center for human trafficking.

Filipinos, especially attractive young women, are hired to be maids or workers and end up as prostitutes. There is also a lot of drug smuggling, where poor folk are enticed to become mules to deliver drugs to their destinations.

Well, everything cleared, and she flew out last week with her mother to check on the job and housing, and everything was fine.

The background of this is organized crime, and the POGOs, gambling casinos linked to organized crime that were opened 20 years ago despite the warnings by the Catholic bishops, President Arroyo allowed the POGOS as a way to get jobs for locals and money for the government.

According to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), POGOs began operating in 2003 but it was only in 2016, after Duterte came to power, that the government began regulating online gaming hubs.

which brings us to this story I found today on twitter/X: 

 from AlJezeerah.

In a world exclusive, imprisoned tycoon She Zhijiang shares explosive allegations about Chinese spies and an international criminal conspiracy: https://t.co/mSOn5klXaJ pic.twitter.com/9OYtVyCkmk

— 101 East (@AJ101East) September 27, 2024

...............

........

wikipedia page:

His company, Yatai International Holdings Group (abbreviated Yatai IHG), is registered in Hong Kong and headquartered in Thailand.[2] He became a fugitive in 2012, after fleeing Chinese authorities.[7] In 2014, a Shandong court convicted him of running an illegal lottery business in the Philippines that targeted Chinese online users, and had netted US$298 million in profits.[8]

so convicted in China 2014, but that didn't slow him down. 

In 2015, he began building a business in Cambodia, involved in the illicit business of helping Chinese gamblers front-load gambling bets made in Cambodian casinos.[2]

From there, he expanded his business interests to the Philippines and acquired ownership of one of Manila's largest spa and entertainment centers.[2]

the US Institute of Peace (a US Govt think tank) in 2020 posted this report on what was going on in Myanmar.

To circumvent Chinese laws against gambling, ethnic Chinese with citizenship in other countries spearhead these projects.

Of concern to Beijing, they have co-opted Chinese government institutions and agencies to present their activities as central to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.  

notice that several of these articles mention the Philippines? that is an ongoing scandal here which I have not been following. 

But recently, instead of watching soap operas, everyone here is following the Senate hearings on Alice Guo, a fake citizen who became mayor of a small town in Pampanga. that has been linked to casinos and crime (and is near a military base but no spying found...yet).

PhilStar reports (9 25):

n what was supposed to be the final hearing on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO), Guo deviated from her usual responses to assert her innocence—and to hint at a bigger boss.

“Your honor, hindi ako mastermind. Masasabi ko po is isa akong victim (Your honor, I am not a mastermind. I can say that I am a victim) ,” Guo said. 

For most of her appearances in the Senate since being detained by Indonesian authorities in September, Guo has typically given one of three responses: she either claims ignorance, invokes her right against self-incrimination or cites a death threat.

Sen. JV Ejercito then asked Guo if she was a pawn of an international criminal syndicate. Guo responded that she was not exactly used, but acknowledged that she has a reputation for being helpful.

This article from the Straits Time Singapore notes connections with organized crime there.

Guo had incorporated the company behind the scam compound, Baofu Land Development, in 2019 with two convicts in Singapore’s $3 billion money laundering case, Chinese nationals Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying.

and ANC notes

......

alas, I am not an expert on the Chinese Triad but WIKIPEDIA page discusses their long history 

and the liberal Brookings Institute has a long analysis of the relationship between organized crime and the Chinese government

Indeed, these criminal networks provide a variety of services to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Chinese legal enterprises. They help build networks of corruption and influence among foreign politicians and businesses.

In interviews with Vanda Felbab-Brown, current and former law enforcement officials from the United States, Asia, Australia, and Africa stated that China-linked criminal groups monitor the Chinese diaspora and act as extralegal enforcers on behalf of Chinese authorities against those who speak and act against the Chinese government and CCP. Thus, Chinese government officials often unofficially extend the umbrella of party protection and government authority to these actors.

 Hey Donald, instead of worrying about Haitians eating Garfield you need to check out some of the Chinese ethnics entering the USA illegally.

sorry: I accidentally posted it here, but you know, with all of those Chinese investments in Africa, and now that Africans are being recruited to work overseas, I wonder if there is a story about the Chinese triads in Africa too.

Chinese overfishing destroying West African ecosystem

 China has overfished and dug up the sea bed in the West Philippine sea, harming our fishing industry. But their fishing trawlers have also been busy stealing maritime resources from South America,

but now they are destroying the fishing grounds off of West Africa:

......

these reports are not recent. 

But Global voices has a report on what is going on recently:

The impact of China's fishing policies on West Africa Large trawlers are destroying the ecosystem in West African ocean

Senegal is one of many countries affected by devastating overfishing due to illegal Chinese fishing vessels. Senegal’s unemployment rate remains high because, according to Greenpeace, an environmental organization working in more than 50 countries in the world, including West and Central Africa, the introduction of mass-scale fishing techniques by Chinese vessels has devastated local fishing industries, leaving many without their livelihoods....