This follows a two-week police search-and-seizure operation in the region.

Briefing the media on Friday, provincial police commissioner, Moeketsi Sempe, said over 90 of the suspects are undocumented foreign nationals.

He added they had also recovered unlicensed firearms, knives and electric cables.

Sempe said police are extremely concerned over the increasing number of criminal activities, gangsterism and the number of so-called Zama Zamas or illegal miners operating in the Welkom area.

In efforts to address the increasing number of criminal activities in the Welkom area and the entire district, police spokesperson, Motantsi Makhele, said police in the province were hard at work to fight illicit mining and associated crimes such as illegal possession of firearms, drugs, illegal processing of precious metals, robberies, and murders that have been reported in the Goldfields area. He added more arrests were expected.

The city has in the past months made headlines following various criminal activities, including murder. 

CCTV footage, which emerged online, depicting the gruesome murder of a 54-year-old man, who was shot at close range while sitting in his car in the parking lot of the Commando Shopping Centre, sent shock waves across the country with social media users posing questions over safety and security in this city.

The footage showed two men approaching a blue VW Polo before firing their firearms five times.

Investigations pertaining to this case still continue.

OFM News