- Illegal sand mining is a criminal offence that is damaging riverbanks, dunes, wetlands, and coastal areas across the Eastern Cape
- Recent heavy rains have again highlighted the flood and erosion risks faced by communities
- I have requested that DEDEAT present an urgent provincial enforcement and coordination plan to combat illegal sand mining
Recent heavy rains have again highlighted how exposed many Eastern Cape communities are when natural flood protection is degraded.
Illegal sand mining worsens that risk. It strips sand from riverbanks, dunes, wetlands, and coastal areas, accelerates erosion, damages rural roads and river crossings, and leaves communities to carry the cost while criminal operators profit from stolen public resources.
This is a criminal offence under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, which prohibits the removal or mining of minerals without the required authorisation, permit, or right. It may also trigger offences under environmental legislation where protected areas or water systems are damaged without the required environmental authorisation.
I have requested that the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development, Environmental Affairs, and Tourism require DEDEAT to present, as a matter of urgency, a provincial enforcement and coordination plan to combat illegal sand mining in the Eastern Cape.
This plan must set out known illegal sand-mining hotspots, complaints received, inspections conducted, referrals made to SAPS and the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, action taken against repeat offenders, and the rehabilitation required at damaged sites.
It must also account for the number of criminal cases, arrests, and prosecutions; the number of vehicles and equipment confiscated; and the steps being taken with law-enforcement authorities to disrupt the transporters, buyers, and criminal networks that make illegal sand mining profitable.
I have also submitted parliamentary questions to the DEDEAT MEC, Nonkqubela Pieters, for an update on illegal sand mining operations in the province, and during the budgetary debates, I requested that the MEC consider appointing a special task team to deal specifically with illegal mining along the Wild Coast.
Last year, MEC Pieters confirmed that 15 illegal sand mining sites had been brought under control and that 63 arrests had been made.
She also revealed that the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources only has 20 officials responsible for monitoring and responding to illegal mining complaints across the country.
MEC Pieters also confirmed that DEDEAT has not commissioned a study into the scale of the damage in the province, that no provincial estimate of the damage is available, and that no rehabilitation has been done at illegal mining sites, mainly due to financial constraints.
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This leaves communities exposed twice. First, criminal operators remove a public resource for private gain. Then residents are left with degraded riverbanks, unstable wetlands, damaged access routes, and greater flood risk.
Illegal sand mining must now be pursued through proper criminal enforcement, supported by environmental compliance action and clear rehabilitation liability. Arrests alone are not enough if prosecutions fail, equipment is returned, transport networks continue, and damaged sites are abandoned.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that delivers, and a future built on dignity, opportunity, and honest government.