Question NW2648 to the Minister of Home Affairs
03 October 2023 - NW2648
van der Merwe, Ms LL to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1) How do the counter-return operations of his department that are part of interventions to combat illegal mining, particularly in Gauteng, differ from the traditional border patrol activities of the department; (2) whether the counter-return operations were budgeted for; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) whether additional budget needs to be allocated; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS), which the Department is part of and which now also includes the Border Management Authority (BMA), has developed a strategy to deal with countering illegal mining throughout the country. There is special focus on four provinces namely Gauteng Province, North-West Province, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province due to the history of mining.
2. The counter-return operations include other law enforcement agencies.
3. The JCPS Cluster is working on additional funding requests for counter-return operations.
END