Spokesperson Stephen Thakeng says most of the illegal miners are foreign nationals, comprising 12 Zimbabweans and four Lesotho nationals. 

Police believe they’re winning the war on illegal mining in the Goldfields area. 

The sixteen illegal miners will appear at Welkom Magistrate's Court on Monday. 

According to Thakeng, other miners are charged with street mining, conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of food or items suspected to be meant for illegal miners underground, that amounts to millions of rand.

“Thus far, 1 405 illegal miners have been arrested since March this year for trespass, illegal immigration and attempted theft of gold bearing material, 60 died thus far and mostly they are Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe nationals. 

"Sixty cases of inquest have been registered with regards to illegal miners who died underground.  

"Mostly, they were found guilty and sentenced as follows: from three months to three years' imprisonment with options of fines from R1 500 up to R20 000. 

"We would like to discourage people from being involved in illicit mining because you will be arrested and secondly lots of people are dying while underground, because since March this year sixty [60] zama-zamas have died.  

"Lastly, we would like to applaud residents of Goldfields for information they give to us which mostly led to quite a number of these arrests and seizures of zama-zamas' food which promotes illicit mining.  

"We will be cracking down on illegal mining in the Goldfields area.”

Thakeng thanked Matjhabeng residents for always informing police about illegal miners. 

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