Twelve people dead. Ten others wounded. And a community left traumatised after one of the deadliest mass shootings Gauteng has witnessed in recent years. Residents of the Jumpers informal settlement in Cleveland, east of Johannesburg, say heavily armed gunmen stormed the area on Tuesday night and opened fire indiscriminately for more than an hour. As police launch a nationwide manhunt and deploy specialised investigative units, attention is increasingly turning to the shadowy world of illegal mining. While SAPS says it is too early to definitively link the massacre to zama zama activity, community leaders, residents and political parties argue that violent battles between rival illegal mining syndicates have turned parts of Cleveland into a war zone. Tonight, we ask: Is illegal mining now one of the greatest threats to community safety in Gauteng, and what must be done to stop these
criminal syndicates before more innocent lives are lost