Listen here.Illegal mining kingpins are in the crosshairs when a new Illegal Mining Bill becomes law with R100 million fines and 30-year prison sentences on the cards. However, Independent Governance Expert Richard Chelin tells Chris Steyn that in the six years it has taken the government to draft the bill, illegal mining has gone from “a regulatory headache to a national security crisis…but beyond the money, we're talking about sinkholes, we're talking about environmental degradation, water contamination. We've seen damaged infrastructure. We've seen what explosions have done recently in West Rand. And also we've seen the rise of violent crime in mining communities. Day in, day out, week in, week out we've seen on the news gangs, Zama Zama gangs, fighting each other and innocent individuals and people getting caught in the crossfire. But the one thing is the cost is enormous and we've been paying it while waiting for the bill to come through.”.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.386)Is a new illegal mining bill powerful enough to reach the kingpins or will it only catch the Zama Zamas? With me is Richard Chelin, an independent governance expert. Welcome, Richard.Richard Chelin (00:17.033)Thank you for having me Chris and hi to the viewers.Chris Steyn (00:21.452)Richard, about seven years ago, you wrote an article in which you made several suggestions. Some of those have now been incorporated in this new bill. How do you feel about that?Richard Chelin (00:33.801)Well, I would say seven years, eight years ago is quite a long time. I think for me it's finally something that is happening, you know.And one of the key things I argued was we can't arrest our way out of this. And I think that becomes quite clear in the new bill. However, having said this, six years later, the syndicates have only gotten richer, more violent and more organised. But I would say the bill closes the legal loophole. But for me, the frustration is that we've lost almost half a decade while the problem gradually increased.Chris Steyn (01:14.168)But what would this bill actually change?Richard Chelin (01:17.895)Well, it's quite interesting, I mean, for the first time in South Africa's mining history, illegal mining itself is being defined as a specific criminal offence.If you would look at it, previously prosecutors had to rely on charges of trespassing, possession of gold-bearing material. And that was quite a legal loophole and the bill aims to fix that. We also see that the fines move from 250,000 to 100 million. Prison sentences grow from 10 to 30 years. And I think the most interesting part of it is that it not only criminalises the people and the ground, but anyone who assists in the illegal mining chain from the drivers to the financiers.Chris Steyn (02:03.768)So you think the kingpins will not remain untouched.Richard Chelin (02:08.156)Well, that's what the bill aims to see,But a bill on its own, it won't solve the matter. The implementation is what matters. But the way it's put out is that we target the whole chain because if you look at it, we've seen the arrest of 60, 70 illegal miners, Zama Zamas, have been arrested and the following week they are back, different people underground. Sometimes we might have one, two individuals a bit higher up the chain which are defined as kingpins which can be, there's some ways to see whether they are. And you know one kingpin goes, the next one will take over as long as the chain is still there. We need to get each and every criminal actors involved in the whole chain.Chris Steyn (03:00.194)This bill gives the South African Police Service new powers. How would that work on the ground?Richard Chelin (03:07.644)Well, it's quite interesting because it inserts a new section, Section 91A into the mining law. This officially authorises police to carry out compliance functions. But I think most importantly, it excludes routine inspection and issuing compliance notices. That stays with the Department of Mineral Resources because we have to remember illegal mining falls under the Department of Mineral Resources mining generally. So the police have an enforcement mandate, but compliance notices looking at whether the mine is still operating, the health and safety standards, all of that still remains with the Department of Mineral Resources.If you would remember at the conference, the minister said that this was requested by NatJoints to help with operations. But I think the real question is, does SAPS have the resources, the training, and the intelligence capability to actually do that? We've had six years or more, or more, I would say, or more. I mean, by the time I wrote the piece, the research I was doing, it was still prevalent, not to the level we see today. But I'm not really convinced as yet that we are ready.Chris Steyn (04:28.3)That is why some people argue that the Army should be deployed permanently. What do you think?Richard Chelin (04:36.165)I think it doesn't solve the problem. We can’t have the Army because it costs resources, costs money. And we've seen that currently the defence force is going through a funding challenge, right? I think it was yesterday or two days ago when Mmusi Maimane came out and in one of the interviews he said that the President has finally signed some funding that the Appropriation Committee made available. But I would think this enforcement method lies with specifically the SAPS. It's not only about enforcing, it's about gathering intelligence, right? I would say you know you can enforce the law, you can go, you can arrest people, but you need the intelligence to be able to trace the value chain. I call it the value chain, you know, from the illegal miners to the one they sell the gold to, then gets laundered and then they get transported to various places and they even leave the shore. So you need broader mechanisms than just enforcement. So unfortunately, yes, the Army might help for a short period of time. We've seen that in other instances, right, the biggest talking point around deploying SANDF is in the gang-related areas in Cape Town, for instance, and we've seen mixed emotions there. We've seen that very little has happened. So I would say that might not be the real answer to addressing this challenge.Chris Steyn (06:08.706)How much is illegal mining costing now in comparison to when you wrote the article?Richard Chelin (06:15.641)And I would say it's quite, you know, organised crime per se. It's very difficult to actually get a fixed number, you know, and unfortunately, sometimes we can get quite fixated around the figures, right? But back when I wrote it, it was around 21 billion Rand that's, you know, being taken out of, you know, what...could benefit the economy. Today we've seen some estimates including from PWC, they put it as high as 70 billion Rand. So in the six years that it took the government to draft this bill, the problem has more than tripled if we look at it in monetary terms, right?But beyond the money, I think we're talking about sinkholes. We're talking about environmental degradation, water contamination. We've seen damaged infrastructure. We've seen what explosions have done recently in West Rand. And also we've seen the rise of violent crime in mining communities. Day in, day out, week in, we've seen on the news gangs, Zama Zama gangs fighting each other and innocent...individuals and people getting caught in the crossfire. But the one thing is the cost is enormous and we've been paying it while waiting for the bill to come through.Chris Steyn (07:39.458)When will it become law?Richard Chelin (07:42.752)Right now the bill is open for public comment until the 11th of September, 2026.So at this point anyone can email submissions…After that Parliament will process it. There will be debates, potential amendments and then finally it goes to the President for signing. I'm not sure how long that takes. We've seen some bills that take forever before the president to sign. He even at one point joked that he was looking for his pen to sign some laws, right? But at this point it is not law yet.And I would urge that it is time for civil society, mining communities and also the industries that have been pushing for such changes to the mining law and to address illegal mining to have their say. I think that's what I would do. After six years of waiting I'd urge everyone to engage. And I think this is the right time. Chris Steyn (08:41.078)Is there anything about this bill that you would like to change?Richard Chelin (08:49.181)I think the first thing, I mean the thing I would do is strengthen the provision for tracing and prosecuting the mining/..kingpins. I think we would need a dedicated financial unit to focus on mineral smuggling and the power to follow the money cross borders and cross border intelligence sharing as well. And I would also pay enforcement with real economic development plan for the mining communities.I said it six years ago and I'll say it again that poverty and ruthless syndicates are equally responsible and I believe we have to fight both.Chris Steyn (09:26.574)Does this bill do anything to address the poverty that drives some, or part of, the Zama Zama boom?Richard Chelin (09:35.518)No, unfortunately, you know, that's, unfortunately it doesn't. And that's, as I mentioned previously, it's quite a big challenge, you know, because at the end of the day, people are pushed into this into illegal mining not because they want to. Some are forced into it by criminal networks, criminal syndicates, but others just have lost their jobs and the only thing they know is mining. And that's the one way that they can deal with it. We've seen talks about legalisation and I think the bill does make a step towards it where it differentiates between illegal mining and illicit mining and more people that can get their license to mine legally.Even that in itself is a challenge because there's a lot of process, there's a lot of resources that are required to achieve that. But in short, the bill does not address the property, I think that rests with other departments, which I believe do have to come on board with that so that the plan does not rest only on enforcement, but also on social development and community economic development of these mining communities.Chris Steyn (10:48.48)Any other comment that you'd like to add, Richard?Richard Chelin (10:53.011)I would say it took the government quite a while, you know, and we know that it takes time for government to put a bill out there to address it. I would say I'm grateful and it's quite commendable that the government has finally come to the table. But the time that it took, it seems that illegal mining has gone from a regulatory headache to a national security crisis. I would say the law gives us the tools, but laws don't enforce themselves. As one commentator said, if we don't go after the kingpins in Sandton, if we don't address the poverty that drives people on the ground, and if we don't give our law enforcement the resources to do this work properly, we will still be in the same position six years later.And I would like to emphasise that this is not a tool and not a solution. It's a tool to address it. It requires political will, resources, and a genuine commitment to the communities that are caught in the middle.Chris Steyn (11:57.112)Thank you. That was Richard Chelin, Independent Governance Expert. Speaking to BizNews, I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you.Richard Chelin (12:05.034)Thank you very much.