The residents of Solplaatjie, near Roodepoort, expressed relief as they watched the police raid a mine dump that had been occupied by zama zamas. Residents complained of the high crime levels and living in constant fear of the heavily armed illegal miners.

A resident, who refused to be named fearing victimisation, said because the zama zamas operate at night, all residents need to be home in order to be safe ."Once it gets dark you'll see them creeping out and multiple gunshots will be heard throughout the night. We don't know whether they are meant to scare us or they are fighting amongst themselves for territory," she said. She added that she is glad that the police are finally doing something about this, which is something they've always longed for. "Many of these zama zamas are my brothers from Lesotho and their behaviour on this side shocks me. You'll never see them do this back home because they respect the law. They should just go back home because they've become terrorists, who are dragging all our names in the mud who are genuinely here for legit jobs," she said.

Another resident said on Wednesday night around 8pm four people were shot and killed.

He said it was zama zamas fighting one another. " This is a weekly thing, the four people that were killed came from Jerusalem squatter camp and were shot this side. It's a painful thing to see, even our children have gotten used to hearing gunshots or seeing dead bodies," He said, however, it seemed as if they were fighting a losing battle because some residents connect electricity illegally for zama zamas. "Time and again our electricity trips because of their operations and the people who connect them don't care because they are making money. You might search in the shacks but a lot of these houses are harbouring zama zamas."

SAPS Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela said they know that as soon as the police leave, zama zamas make means to continue with their operations. He added that even though that's the case, they cannot sit and do nothing. "As you can see, we have requested the help of a police chopper and drones so they can assist us with having an aerial view while we work on the ground. If it happens that we are shot at, the assistant pilot will be able to help us and shoot from the sky, he said. Mawela explained that they started their operations on Tuesday and 40 arrests were made. "Today our main focus was to rehabilitate and close all the holes as well as confiscate tools of trade. We are happy that we have confiscated a lot of phendukas and generators and we've confiscated a lot of mercury as well. This operation will give us some mileage as it will slow down their operations." Mawela said they will continue with operations and effect more arrests moving forward.