Residents in villages situated near mining activities are exposed to dangerous hazards that claim their health, damage their homes and threaten their livelihoods.
When the siren from the mine says wee-wee-wee-wee, I take my children to stay outside for safety,” says Charlotte Ngwato, a mother of two who lives in Maatlopeng village, about 35km from Burgersfort in Limpopo. Like the other residents of this small village, she laments the damage their houses suffer because of the nearby opencast Lwala Mine, which is owned by Samancor Chrome. The villagers say the mine began operating in June 2018.
“They were blasting right next to our houses,” Ngwato says. “We saw a convoy of cars that came to fetch us to live in tents closer to the graveyard in the village. We asked why they are taking us to the tents, and they said they wanted to blast here and the chemicals that they use are poisonous. That is where the problems started. We told them that since you’ve done everything without consulting us, do as you please.”
Ngwato says the whole area gets covered by a thick layer of dust. “They’ve never listened to us and they’ve continued with their operation. You must check first when they’re knocking off early, and that’s the only time you’d be able to open windows and wash your laundry,” she explains.
It recently rained in the area and Ngwato says her neighbour, Lucy Thobejane, called the mine to come and see the black water that was collected from her roof. “We told them that our houses are getting destroyed. My house had broken windows because of the mine’s operation,” says Ngwato.
Houses cracking
Whiskey Manyaka and Patricia Thobejane live about 470m from the mine. In December 2019, cracks developed in the walls of the house they were building. Manyaka says it took him decades of doing piece jobs to save enough to provide a decent home for his family. Then early this year, as they were about to erect a roof over their new home with its four bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and dining and sitting room, the house collapsed. Standing next to the rubble, Manyaka says: “What can I do? I have no words.”
The home of Manyaka’s neighbour, his sister-in-law Esther Thobejane, also has cracks. “But these people are selfish,” says Ngwato. “We call them to see the cracks, they come – and tomorrow they’d be blasting again. All of us have cracks in our houses.”
The residents of Maatlopeng say they want Samancor Chrome to relocate them and provide compensation for the damage to their properties. But the company has made several different propositions. “They said they wanted to fix our gravel road with mine waste and give us water,” explains Ngwato. “We rejected this proposal. They came with another proposal that they are willing to patch damages and also bring specialists to educate us how to build in future. We asked them, because some of the cracks are in the foundation, how will you patch the foundation?”
A third proposal, which infuriated the residents even more, is for Lwala Mine to give each affected household R900 a month that will be topped up with R300 every time blasting operations take place. “This amount can’t even assist to rebuild or fix severe cracks in the house,” Ngwato explains, adding that the mine allegedly tried to convince those residents who live in shacks or are yet to build homes to accept the proposal.
Bokoni Platinum Mine
Such challenges are widespread in communities affected by mining. Moshabi Selowa is a human rights and environmental activist from Malengine Section in Monametsi village, which is situated between two of Bokoni Platinum Mine’s underground shafts in the Platinum Belt in Limpopo. Bokoni is a joint venture between minority shareholder Anglo American Platinum and majority shareholder Atlatsa Resources and has been under care and maintenance since 2017.
Selowa says when the mine’s Brakfontein shaft was established in 2005, houses in Monametsi were damaged during the hauling of construction materials from Bokoni’s UM2 shaft. Residents managed to compel the mine to relocate 45 households and build houses for them.
