01 Jul 2013

Moshupa MP, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed concerned about some people who mine sand at night or early in the morning.

Mr Masisi, who is also Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, said sand should only be mined from 6 a.m to 6 p.m. He was addressing a kgotla meeting in Mogonye recently.

Meanwhile, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks official, Mr Gilbert Haggie encouraged Mogonye residents in the Ngwaketse area to apply for sand user rights along the Bikwe River so as to police illegal sand mining.

Mr Haggie said the licence would give the Mogonye/Mmamotshwane Village Development Trust exclusive mining rights over the Bikwe River sand. With the licence, he said, the trust would be able to generate income from the sale of sand. 

Mr Haggie further said they could channel the revenue accrued to the trust, to engage some residents to police the area in an effort to arrest illegal sand mining.

He also pointed out that the licence would afford the residents equitable access to use the sand and alleviate incidents of a select few individuals claiming exclusive mining rights over large chunks of the natural resource. 

Mr Haggie also urged residents to learn to co-exist with wildlife in their area adding that could encourage tourism activities and create employment opportunities.

One of the residents had earlier on raised a complaint that a certain individual claimed to have exclusive rights to the sand mine of over 3km along Bikwe River at the expense of about 40 000 people in the area.

Meanwhile, Moshupa Sub-land Board deputy chairperson said there was little the land authority could do to arrest illegal sand miners. 

Mr Curtis Pule said the challenge was that sand mining application process started with a prospecting licence issued by the Department of Mining and the land board would later come in to give surface rights only to an applicant while licensing and consultations with the community came last.

In the past he said, it was easy for land authorities to regulate sand mining because applicants were compelled to consult members of the community where sand would be mined before applying for other licenses. ENDS