In Bapong, a village near Brits in South Africa’s mineral rich North West province, excavators idle between homes, deep trenches cut through yards, and in a matter of months, illegal miners have turned a residential community into sections of carved up craters. Roads have collapsed.And most residents are too afraid of the syndicates involved to speak out.
This is Chrome Crime.
Checkpoint investigates the systematic digging that’s left entire neighbourhoods on the brink of collapse. What begins as a story about illegal mining quickly becomes something more troubling — allegations that the problem was allowed to fester, questions about who benefits from the chrome being extracted, and a community that has lost faith in the institutions meant to protect it.
Some residents accuse the Bapo Ba Mogale royal family – as well as the police – of complicity. The royal family denies this, and while police top brass have said they strongly suspect police involvement, the digging continues.
All forms of illegal mining cost South Africa an estimated R21 billion annually in sales, taxes, and royalties. In Bapong, that statistic has a face — and it lives next door to a sinkhole.
Checkpoint’s Chrome Crime is a three-part investigation. This is where it begins.
