A hellish picture worthy of a Tolkien fantasy novel is emerging of the Stilfontein zama zama crisis – including improvised explosive booby-traps illegal miners could likely manufacture right there and use to resist a forcible take-down by Police and the SA National Defence Force.
Such improvised weapons – in the form of fuse-lit bombs and hand-grenades made from explosives shaved off legal mining supplies by formal miners and sold to zama zamas – would be devastating if used in cramped and hot tunnel mazes against law enforcement.
Combined with assault rifles and other military equipment of which the zama zamas seem to have a substantial supply, this makes occupied mines impregnable underground fortresses unless Police vastly upgrade their equipment.
Read the full story on ProtectionWeb here.
