The office of Ward 2 Councillor Alfred Thenjekwayo has dismissed claims that Sporong informal settlement in Randfontein is under siege by illegal miners (zama zamas), clarifying that empty shacks in the area are the result of government housing relocations rather than residents fleeing in fear.
The clarification follows complaints from community members who claimed they were living in terror and abandoning their homes due to escalating violence and withdrawn police deployments. Residents had also raised concerns that while soldiers were deployed to several mining hotspots across Gauteng, Sporong had seen no military presence on the ground.
Speaking on behalf of Councillor Thenjekwayo, an administrative assistant in the ward office refuted claims of a security gap, stating that the settlement was stabilised following direct provincial government interventions.
“It is not really true that people are now living under siege. I think that was back then, before the intervention of the Office of the Premier. The Office of the Premier intervened and sent police and the SANDF, who were stationed there for quite some time,” the councillor’s office said.
Addressing the visible reduction in the settlement’s population, the office confirmed that approximately 210 beneficiary families have moved out of Sporong into formal brick-and-mortar homes provided by the Department of Human Settlements.
While these residents had existing housing applications, the municipal and provincial authorities fast-tracked their allocation specifically to remove families from high-risk informal structures built near dangerous mining shafts and turf-war zones.
The ward office explained that whenever beneficiaries receive their new houses, their former shacks in Sporong are immediately demolished to prevent unlawful land occupation and stop criminal syndicates from using the empty structures.
According to the office, only a small number of households remain in the settlement. These residents fall into two groups- families who are still waiting for their government housing subsidy approvals, and foreign nationals who do not meet the legal criteria to receive state-subsidised houses.
The councillor’s office emphasized that while illegal mining syndicates and territorial violence remain serious regional issues across West Rand municipalities, Sporong is currently undergoing a planned housing relocation rather than mass community displacement.
