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Gallery|In Pictures

South Africa’s gold mining legacy

In Johannesburg’s impoverished townships, poor communities are paying the price for the country’s rich gold mining past.

South Africa’s gold mining legacy: toxic dust and disabled children
Thabiso Klato is 15 years old. He can walk but not speak. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
By Nathalie Bertrams
Published On 17 Apr 202317 Apr 2023
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Johannesburg, South Africa – “This mine is a silent killer,” said Tiny Dlamini at Snake Park in Soweto, pointing at Johannesburg’s largest abandoned gold mine dump that looms over the impoverished settlement.

During over a century of highly profitable gold mining in South Africa, large amounts of mining waste were piled into massive hills, mainly in marginalised and densely populated residential areas such as Soweto.

There is no fencing, signposting or security around the tailings dump officially known as Thulani/Doornkop, but more popularly known as Snake Park. City officials say it has as many as 58,000 residents.

When it is hot, children swim in the highly toxic evaporation pools of the former mine, Dlamini said.

On windy days, the Snake Park mine dump blows toxic, radioactive dust across houses and shacks.

Then the air is thick with yellow dust that contains high levels of uranium and a cocktail of heavy metals like cyanide, arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium.

“Leaving this dump unattended and not rehabilitated is a crime,” Dlamini, a community activist since the Soweto uprising in 1976, told Al Jazeera. “The people here breathe, drink, and eat this dust.”

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Apartheid’s spatial planning forced Black Africans to live downwind of Johannesburg’s mine dumps in townships like Soweto.

Today, “it is environmental apartheid,” David van Wyk, a senior researcher at Bench Marks Foundation, a nonprofit that examines the social responsibilities of multinational corporations, said. “They can’t get out of the trap. And they have to live with the consequences.”

A 2017 Bench Marks Foundation study found that more than two-thirds of Snake Park residents surveyed complained about respiratory problems, including persistent coughs, sinus issues, asthma and tuberculosis.

Many children in Snake Park have developed severe cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that affect movement and posture caused by damage to the developing brain.

These children are taken care of by their impoverished families. Care centres are far and between, and there is no financial help from the government.

“They are the poorest of the poor, and nobody is really that interested in their issues. That, to me, is the biggest problem,” said Natalya Dinat, a medical doctor and researcher for Science for the People Southern Africa.

She says funding for comprehensive epidemiological research would be urgently needed.

And it is not just a problem in Snake Park, she stresses. There are more than 6,000 such abandoned gold mines in South Africa.

“The dumps should be removed, and the people should be given safe living spaces,” van Wyk told Al Jazeera. “The government should enforce the law and hold the companies accountable.”

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Snake park
Research has shown that women poisoned by heavy metals can give birth to infants with severe developmental disabilities and that high levels of radiation can cause cerebral palsy. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
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Snake Park
When the wind blows, the township is covered in toxic yellow dust. Most Snake Park residents suffer from asthma and lung problems. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake Park
Mandla Sibeko is 31 years old, severely affected by cerebral palsy and cared for by his parents. They cannot afford to put him in a care centre. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake Park
Mthokozisi Ndimande is 17 years old. He is severely affected by cerebral palsy – he is blind and has had spastic paralysis since birth. His mother works hard to afford a carer for him. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake Park
Most Snake Park residents are unemployed and battle poverty. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake Park
Constance Guninda with her five-year-old granddaughter Nonhlanhla. Often, the grandmothers are the caregivers for children born with disabilities. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
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snake park
Oratile Motete, 13, is being cared for by her grandmother. They live on a social grant of R1,980 ($108) per month. Their required trips to the hospital would cost around R15,000 ($820) per month. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
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A happy moment on Oratile’s 13th birthday: her uncle, her favourite person in the world, comes to visit and carries her around. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake park
Few people with disabilities in Snake Park can afford a wheelchair. Poverty exacerbates their situation. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
snake park
Uyathandwa Makhubane is held by his aunt. His name means 'He is loved'. Since birth, he has suffered from severe eczema. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
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Neo Tsheole is 15 years old and has severe motor, sensory and cognitive issues. His grandmother takes care of him at home but is struggling on her small old-age grant. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]
Snake Park
Residents of Snake Park have called for the rehabilitation of the mine dump by restoring the buffer zone with suitable vegetation and tree planting, improved control of runoff and seepage from the tailing, and monitoring of contamination and radioactivity. [Nathalie Bertrams/Al Jazeera]


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