The South African government, specifically the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), is failing to effectively activate the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector. Nowhere is this regulatory paralysis more visible than in the critical mining hotspots of Matlosana and Rustenburg.
While large-scale mining operations in areas like Stilfontein and Orkney have passed their economic prime, artisanal mining represents a vital lifeline that could alleviate crippling poverty and reduce soaring unemployment in the City of Matlosana.
Minister Gwede Mantashe published the official ASM Policy on 30 March 2022 to formalise the industry, eliminate illegal operations, and promote job creation. However, despite these regulatory intentions and progress on the Mineral Resources Development Amendment Bill, the reality on the ground remains unchanged. Practical enforcement is virtually non-existent, bureaucratic barriers remain insurmountable, and overlapping criminal syndicates fill the vacuum left by state inaction.
The ongoing crisis in Stilfontein and the broader Matlosana region highlights a fundamental flaw in how the 2022 ASM Policy is applied. In these gold-heavy areas, thousands of informal miners, or Zama Zamas, continue to risk their lives operating deep underground in hazardous, abandoned shafts. The official policy suggests that ASM operations may be limited to surface and open-cast mining only, unless a risk-based system is designed to consider depth. Because the DMRE has failed to implement this risk-based system, local miners face a devastating spatial misalignment. They have absolutely no legal avenue to exploit the deep reef gold they rely on for daily survival.
By failing to provide a realistic framework for deep-level artisanal extraction, the policy effectively criminalises economic necessity. This inaction ensures that these operations remain underground, unsafe, and controlled by dangerous illicit networks.
A different but equally frustrating barrier exists in the platinum corridors of Rustenburg. The landscape there is heavily monopolised by large-scale platinum producers. Negotiating the ceding of surface land, historic waste dumps, or tailings from major corporations to local co-operatives has completely stalled. This deadlock persists despite the fact that the 2022 policy allows ASM permits to be treated as limited real rights. These permits are legally capable of being transferred, mortgaged, or capitalised to give small-scale miners true security of tenure.
The policy even allows the state to completely uncap the geographical area of a permit based on the mineral type and environmental impact. Yet, complex proprietary laws and corporate liability fears create a legal gridlock that the DMRE refuses to break. Instead of actively mediating these agreements to unlock secondary resources for host communities, the state allows corporate monopolies to hoard assets that could otherwise sustain thousands of local families.
The 2022 ASM Policy introduces clear definitions and financial thresholds to structure the industry. It caps artisanal mining at a maximum investment of ZAR 1 million for those using rudimentary tools at shallow depths. It caps small-scale mining at ZAR 10 million for operations avoiding specialized mechanisation, explosives, and toxic chemicals like mercury or cyanide.
The policy also outlines an ambitious graduation provision to help miners scale up into junior or emerging roles, alongside a dual-licensing system that uses a first-come, first-served mechanism and a state-led invitation system informed by the Council for Geoscience. Furthermore, the framework correctly reserves these permits for South African citizens and registered companies, explicitly prioritizing local co-operatives.
Unfortunately, these excellent structural concepts remain entirely on paper. The criteria for the invitation system are still unknown, the duration of the permits remains unspecified, and the graduation mechanics are completely undeveloped.
The DMRE continues to focus on deploying security forces to arrest desperate people under the Criminal Procedure Act instead of building the administrative capacity to hand out these life-changing permits.
The DMRE must urgently pivot its strategy from heavy-handed policing to proactive economic formalisation. Treating a deeply rooted socio-economic crisis as a mere security issue will never yield long-term results.
The government must focus its resources on fast-tracking the accessible legal permits promised in its own framework. Transitioning informal miners into a regulated, legally protected system will naturally strip power away from criminal syndicates, drastically improve health and safety standards, and transform a dangerous underground economy into a legitimate driver of local growth.
The tools to combat poverty in Matlosana and Rustenburg are already in the ground, and the policy framework is already on your desks. The DMRE simply needs the political will to implement its own rules and let the people mine legally.
Thys Khiba is the Editor-in-chief for City Report
