JOHANNESBURG - Police Minister Bheki Cele returned to Riverlea to assess progress in the fight against zama zama's in the area.
Cele told the community that apart from dealing with the illegal miners, the kingpins are also in police crosshairs.
He says authorities have already arrested about 89 masterminds.
"Three months or four months ago, we arrested in Carltonville, we arrested six of these guys who are the middle guys," he said.
"We arrested them, fortunately, or unfortunately they are out on bail, but those kinds of people, who are shifting the gold and diamond out, we have arrested 89 of them, so don't tell us that we don't deal with the top guys, 89 of them, those that we have found them shifting gold bars at the value of R5-million each."