Policy Gap 12

Soweto Report:
Waiting to Inhale
A survey of household
health in four mine-affected
communities
Below: Close up of the water shown in the photograph above at an unprotected mine dump in Soweto

i
Acknowledgments

The Bench Marks Foundation would like to thank the following people and organisations for
their contributing to this report:
Mr David van Wyk, Lead Researcher of the Bench Marks Foundation and lead author of
the report, who conducted the research with great dedication.
Mr John Capel, Executive Director at the Bench Marks Foundation, for initiating the
study and developing terms of reference and contributing to the recommendations.
Bishop Jo Seoka, Chairperson of the Board of the Bench Marks Foundation for his
introductory remarks in the Foreword.
Mr Piet Beukes, Board Member of the Bench Marks Foundation, for his critical reading
of the report and his valuable inputs and suggestions towards improvements.
Christian Aid in London for their financial support in making the study possible and for
their enthusiastic interest in the work as demonstrated in frequent field visits.
The late Professor Freek Cronje who coordinated the research from the Bench Marks
Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at the North-West University, but, who
unfortunately passed away a year before publication.
Ms Suzanne Reyneke and Professor Eddie Bain, researchers from the Bench Marks
Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, who co-authored the report and analysed
the statistics from questionnaires forming the basis of the Household Survey done in
this research.
Mr Brown Motsau, from the Bench Marks Foundation, for his always energetic
engagement with affected communities and his administration, coordination and
facilitation of research processes.
Mr Chris Molebatsi for his knowledge, his effective interaction, translation and
participation in paving the way for the team to safely and effectively operate in the
communities and households that form the basis of this study, and for overseeing the
roll-out of questionnaires in the field. Chris also facilitated the work in Diepkloof,
Meadowlands and Davidsonville.
Mr Charles van der Merwe for his selfless volunteering, his dedication to the
community of Riverlea and his care for the sick and destitute in his community.
Ms Tiny Dlamini whose energetic participation and infectious activism and voluntary
work in the Doornkop Community (Snakepark) serves as an example of selfless
dedication. Tiny knows the residents of Doornkop as if they were all close family and
her concern for their health and well-being assisted the team to realise a clear picture
of the health and environmental challenges faced by the community.
The Riverlea Community Forum and all its members for their search for justice and
redress and the dedication with which they meet, plan and engage with mining
companies, government and the courts on behalf of their community. In particular,

ii
 we acknowledge Reece Rosenburg (Chairperson), Mark Keyter (Deputy Chairperson)
and Robin Wheatly (Legal Advisor).
Mr Hassen Lorgat, Advocacy and Lobbying Advisor at the Bench Marks Foundation for
his contributions to the recommendations of the report, his insightful comments and
for his energetic lobbying and advocacy even in the run-up to the launch.
Ms Busi Thabane, General Manager at the Bench Marks Foundation and Ms Simo
Gumede, administrator at the Bench Marks Foundation, for general assistance
throughout the whole research project, including transport and accomodation
arrangements.
Ms Malebo Rammekoa, Communications Officer at the Bench Marks Foundation, for
arranging the media and publicity around the report.
Ms Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, for always
availing herself when expert advice was sought, and for her critical reading of the
report.
Mr Moses Cloete, Deputy Director at the Bench Marks Foundation, for engaging with
the funders of the project and managing the financial spend during the process.
Dr David Fig for his critical review and edit of the report.
Ms Michelle Coetzee for the language editing of the report.
The Bench Marks research team took all photographs within the report.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the
author, Bench Marks Foundation: they do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the
funding partner Christian Aid - Fleiszer Legacy and should not be so attributed.

iii
Foreword

This Report (Policy Gap 12) by the Bench Marks Foundation on household health and well-
being in near-mine communities living in the South Western Townships (Soweto) of
Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, marks ten years of Policy Gap Reports on mines and
communities in South Africa. The Bench Marks Foundation was established by churches to
investigate the ethics (or lack thereof) of investment through the lens of Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR). We ask: are investment benefits only for those who seek to maximise
profits, or do they also address the key challenges faced by our society (such as
unemployment, poverty, education, health, housing and human development) so that people
may live respectable lives in human dignity in safe and healthy environments?

In this research report, we document household health and well-being in four mine-impacted
communities located in the East and North of Soweto situated close to the reef in the central
and western basins of the Witwatersrand. Historically, this reef was one of the most intensely
mined areas on the planet, with mines like the Crown Mine producing almost half of all gold
ever produced in the world.

There have been many scientific studies on the impact of abandoned, derelict and ownerless
mines on the Witwatersrand, focusing mainly on water and dust pollution. However, very few
studies have ever attempted to integrate the history, geology, economics and politics of
mining with the impact of this industry on household well-being, health and safety. As such
this Policy Gap Report differs from previous reports in that it is not about a mine, or a mining
corporation and its CSR policies and how a community experiences that mine as a corporate
neighbour. Instead, the report is about the evolution of Soweto, in relation to the
development of mining and of Johannesburg as a racial and class segregated city.

In answering the question of how the townships and communities south of the reef came to
be largely black and poor, while those North of the reef became predominantly affluent and
white with a mining and mine waste belt in-between, we hope to address questions about
the generally poor health and well-being of the communities under review.

Six communities were surveyed using intensive historical investigation, interviews,

questionnaires and focus group discussions. One community, Danville in Mafikeng, North
West Province, served as a control group. The communities of Riverlea, Diepkloof,
Meadowlands and Doornkop (Snakepark) formed the core of the investigation, while
Davidsonville was briefly investigated out of curiosity because the community had taken an
offending mining company to court and had won their case. The Bench Marks Foundation,
therefore, thought that the experience of Davidsonville would be of use once the Foundation
begins with its Monitoring School activities in Soweto.

iv
The Bench Marks Foundation hopes that this study will shed light on many health challenges
faced by Soweto residents because of a long history of mining near the township. It must be
noted that, historically, those residing in Soweto and Riverlea, which is now considered to be
a part of Soweto, had no choice about where they wanted to live; they were forcibly
relocated from other areas that were safer, with healthier environmental conditions than
Soweto. The residents also had no choice in the size of yards, design or building materials
used in the construction of their houses. Thus, they had no choice in the roofing materials
used (asbestos). They also had no choice in the location of their houses or the distance of
their homes from toxic, radioactive mine dumps. Nor did anyone ever inform or educate
them about the implicit dangers associated with operating abandoned, derelict and
ownerless mines.

Taking cognisance of these facts, the Bench Marks Foundation hopes that the mining
industry, government at all spheres, Chapter Nine State Institutions supporting constitutional
democracy, civil society, the media and Church and faith-based organisations will deem it
necessary and appropriate to act on the recommendations contained in this study.

The Rt. Rev. Dr Jo Seoka Mr John Capel

Chairperson, Executive Director,
Bench Marks Foundation Bench Marks Foundation

v
The Bench Marks Foundation

The Bench Marks Foundation is an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO)

established by the South African Council of Churches (SACC), the Ecumenical Service for
SocioEconomic Transformation (ESSET), Industrial Mission of South Africa, CDT Foundation
and the Justice and Peace Department of the South African Catholic Bishops Conference.

Its international partners are:

The Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) USA
The Taskforce on Churches & Corporate Responsibility (TCCR) Canada
The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility UK
The Christian Centre for Socially Responsible Investment Australia

Together with our international partners, we share a measurement instrument called the
Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business
Performance. This instrument is a comprehensive set of social, economic and environmental
criteria and business performance indicators drawn from a body of internationally recognised
human rights, labour and environmental standards and principles. The Bench Marks
Foundation is mandated by the churches to monitor the investment practices of
multinational corporations to ensure that they respect human rights, operate in a way that
protects the environment and do not externalise costs, that profit making is not done at the
expense of other interest groups, and that those most negatively impacted upon are heard,
protected and accommodated within the business plans of the corporation.

The Bench Marks Foundation works with research institutions, such as its partner, the Bench
Marks Centre for CSR at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), other NGOs,
and religious and community organisations across the Southern African Development
Community (SADC). It does evidence-based research and strengthens communities to engage
on a more level footing with corporations and governments through the Bench Marks
Monitoring School. It promotes public awareness through media outlets, websites, blogs,
Facebook and other social media. It has produced many reports, articles, opinion pieces and
published in many academic journals.

The Foundation was launched in 2001, and an office established in 2003 in Johannesburg.
The Rt. Rev Dr Jo Seoka chairs the organisation and is the founding chairperson of the
Foundation. The Bench Marks Foundation aims to ensure that the operations of big
corporations do not in any way undermine community life and destroy the environment and
that investment is done in a way that respects the integrity of creation, is just, equitable and
promotes human development. The Bench Marks concerns are that private corporations,
often with the support of government leaders, make very large profits while communities
suffer high levels of inequality and poverty. The Bench Marks Foundation is equally

vi
concerned about the destruction of our air, water and soil resources that results from
industrial activities such as mining.

The Bench Marks Centre for CSR

The Bench Marks Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the Potchefstroom
Campus of the North-West University (NWU) was formally established at the beginning of
2012, and the Centre was launched on 23 January 2012 by Bishop Jo Seoka in Potchefstroom.
The Centre is a partner to the Bench Marks Foundation (BMF). The Centres core activities
consists of research, teaching, community engagement and consultancy. The Centre is
primarily engaged in research in the mining sector, but the study focus does not exclude
other sectors. Research work in the retail sector as well the financial sector has also been
done.

The vision of the Centre is to contribute to sustainable development in the province, in the
country and in SADC through the enhancement of research and training in the corporate
social responsibility arena, as well as through relevant and effective community engagement.

Through its mission statement, the Centre aims to:

Stimulate and conduct high-quality, innovative research and training on corporate
social responsibility;
Provide the space for dialogue amongst various stakeholders, in particular
government, civil society and the private sector;
Create synergy between basic and applied research (theory/policy and practice);
Create a specific research focus in CSR at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-
West University; and
Learn from the studied experiences of communities that are living through and
experiencing existing CSR-CSI programmes and initiatives, with a view of changing it
to benefit people and the planet, contrary to only enhancing profits.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS xiv

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xvi
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. OBJECTIVES 1
3. METHODOLOGY 2
3.1 Research procedures 2
3.2 Data collection methods 3
3.3 Data analysis 5
3.4 Ethical considerations 6
3.5 Limitations of the research 7
4. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 8
4.1 Geological history 9
4.1.1 Basin, drain, inland sea... 9
4.1.2 The official beginning and early development of gold mining 14
4.1.3 Water and gold (fountains, fissures and aquifers) 17
4.1.4 Gold and its sisters: uranium, arsenic, lead, copper, iron, silver, chrome the
implications for community health 26
4.1.5 Proximity of human settlements to tailings in Soweto and mining consultation 31
4.1.6 Mining consultation, dust, security, radioactivity and the consequences of keeping
the public in the dark 33
4.1.7 Waiting to inhale asbestos fibres, radioactive dust and arsenic 39
5. HISTORY OF SOWETO THE FLIPSIDE OF THE HISTORY OF
JOHANNESBURG 44
5.1 Early discovery of gold in South Africa and on the Rand 45
5.2 The gradual evolution of Soweto, a matter of civilisation, hygiene, cleanliness,
cheap labour and profits 47
5.3 Main Reef Road and the segregation of labour by race, ethnicity and class 60
6. SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPACTS ON
MINING COMMUNITIES 62
6.1. Riverlea 62
6.1.1 History and demography of Riverlea 62
6.1.2 Most common illnesses in Riverlea households 63
6.1.3 Comparing Riverlea to the control community of Danville 67
6.1.4 Dust in Riverlea 67
6.1.5 Specific community concerns of mining companies operating around Riverlea 72
6.1.5.1 Central Rand Gold 72
6.1.5.2 Durban Roodepoort Deep/ERGO 75
6.1.6 The Riverlea community's perception of the mining operations 80
6.2 Diepkloof 81
6.2.1 History and demography of Diepkloof 81
6.2.2 Most common illnesses in Diepkloof households 82
6.2.3 Comparing Diepkloof to the control community of Danville 83

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6.2.4 Dust and tailings dams in Diepkloof 84
6.2.5 Specific community concerns of mining companies operating around Diepkloof 89
6.2.6 Diepkloof residents' perception of the mining operations 90
6.3 Meadowlands 91
6.3.1 History and demography of Meadowlands 91
6.3.2 Most common illnesses in Meadowlands households 92
6.3.3 Comparing Meadowlands to the control community of Danville 92
6.3.4 Dust and tailings dams in Meadowlands 93
6.3.5 Past and present mining activities in Meadowlands 96
6.3.6 Meadowlands perception of the mining operations 99
6.4 Doornkop Informal Settlement in Snake Park 100
6.4.1 History and demography of Doornkop 100
6.4.2 Most common illnesses in Doornkop (in Snake Park) households 100
6.4.3 Comparing Doornkop (Snake Park) to the control community of Danville 105
6.4.4 Dust and tailings dams in Doornkop 106
6.4.5 What do the Doornkop (Snake Park) people think of having a mine as a
neighbour? 109
7. CONCLUSION 109
8. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 111
8.1 Government 111
8.1.1 Departments of Mineral Resources, Environmental Affairs, and Water and
Sanitation 111
8.1.1.1 Summary of findings on Acid Mine Drainage 111
8.1.1.2 Summary of findings on the regulatory framework 111
8.1.2 National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), Department of Health, Department of Human
Settlements and National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH) 112
8.1.2.1 Summary of findings on the need for radon regulations 112
8.1.3 South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) 113
8.1.3.1 Summary of findings on human rights violations 113
8.1.4 The Green Scorpions (Department of the Environment Special Investigations
Unit) 113
8.1.4.1 Summary of findings regarding environmental transgressions 113
8.2 Parliament 114
8.2.1 Summary of findings concerning the prevalence of asbestos 114
8.2.2 Summary of findings on inclusive health and the right to a healthy and safe
environment 114
8.2.3 Summary of findings on abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines 115
8.3 Metro and Local Governments 115
8.3.1 Summary of findings on the geographical setting of townships and industrial
areas 115
8.4 National Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) and the National Institute for
Occupational Health (NIOH) 117
8.4.1 Summary of findings on dust 117
8.5 Department of Mineral Resources and Mining Companies 117
8.5.1 Summary of findings on mining activities 117

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8.6 Communities, Civil Society, Education and Faith-Based Organisations 119
8.6.1 Summary of findings on community awareness 119
8.7 The Media 119

APPENDIX 1: SOWETO HEALTH STUDY QUESTIONNAIRE 127

APPENDIX 2: EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN COMMUNITY STRUCTURES
AND THE CORPORATIONS INVOLVED, THE STATE AND OTHER ROLE-PLAYERS 134

LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Diagram 1: The D1739-70, 1970 dust sampler. 68

Diagram 2: ASTM Standard D1739-98 (2004) dust sampler. 69

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Mineral to ore waste ratio of gold mining 19

Figure 2: Uses of gold 20
Figure 3: Waste generated by source 21
Figure 4: Decomposing uranium breaks down as radon gas 28
Figure 5: Effects of radiation on the human body 29
Figure 6: The workplace hazards of dust 42
Figure 7: Distribution of mining, wealth and waste - North/South divide 61
Figure 8: Philosophical foundations of Central Rand Gold-SA - approach to mining activities 75
Figure 9: Dangers of lead and arsenic poisoning 95
Figure 10: Environmental Management Programme approval for Central Rand Gold operations 99
Figure 11: Impact of radiation on the unborn foetus 103
Figure 12: Prenatal radiation exposure 104

LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph 1: Elevation of Johannesburg relative to Soweto 11

Graph 2: How often do the mines consult the community? 33
Graph 3: How important is it for the mine to consult with communities 33
Graph 4: Asbestos roofing on surveyed Soweto households 40
Graph 5: Electricity use in surveyed Soweto households 40
Graph 6: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Riverlea. 63
Graph 7: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville 67
Graph 8: Notional efficiency of the 1970 dust sampler 69
Graph 9: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Diepkloof 82
Graph 10: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville 83
Graph 11: Reasons for seeking healthcare in in Meadowlands 92
Graph 12: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville 92
Graph 13: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Doornkop (Snake Park) 101
Graph 14: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville 105

x
LIST OF MAPS

Map 1: Topographical map of Soweto 11

Map 2: Soweto in relation to South Africa's goldfields 12
Map 3: Discovery sites of gold in the Witwatersrand region from 1874-1886 13
Map 4: Gold mines were established further afield after the discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand (1886) 13
Map 5: A country undermined 6 000 abandoned mines 19
Map 6: Farms in Witwatersrand prior to the discovery of gold 23
Map 7: Watershed, mine dumps and sewage works in relation to Soweto 24
Map 8: Largely undermined dolomitic belts of South Africa 25
Map 9: Proximity of human settlements to tailings in Soweto 31
Map 10: Tailings measurements of exclusion zones - Diepkloof and Riverlea 32
Map 11: Tailings measurements of exclusion zones - Diepkloof and Riverlea 32
Map 12: Johannesburg 'Kaffir' and 'Coolie' locations (1898) 48
Map 13: Segregated cemetery of Braamfontein 51
Map 14: Mines along the Northern boundary of Soweto (1962) 59
Map 15: The wealth divide 60
Map 16: Prevailing winds blowing into Riverlea and Soweto 65
Map 17: Mine waste facilities on Atwell Gardens, Shareworld recreational area and
Library Gardens 81
Map 18: Original mines to the North of Meadowlands 97
Map 19: Wes Wits Project, north and north-west of Soweto 97
Map 20: Central Rand Gold operational areas 98
Map 21: Central Rand and Durban Roodepoort Deep rights 98

LIST OF PHOTOS

Photo 1: Voices of the Poor Concerned Residents meeting in Diepkloof 7

Photo 2: Meeting of the Riverlea Community Forum 8
Photo 3: Settlement of tents and wagons 16
Photo 4: Digging for gold on the Witwatersrand (1886) 16
Photo 5: Open slanted stopes (1886) 17
Photo 6: Acid water decanting in childrens park - Davidsonville 26
Photo 7: Geiger readings in Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and Doornkop 28
Photo 8: A typical dust bucket, Riverlea 34
Photo 9: Dust storm sweeping through Diepkloof (October 2015) 34
Photo 10: No entry signage 35
Photo 11: Metered reading for total dissolved solids 35
Photo 12: Teenagers playing on the Diepkloof tailings dam 36
Photo 13: Kids swimming in the Doornkop tailings evaporation pond 37
Photo 14: Quad biking and scrambling on a radioactive tailings dam 37
Photo 15: Ruins of Iron Age Settlement South-East of Alberton 46
Photo 16: Mooifontein tailings South of Riverlea 62

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Photo 17: During and after dust storm - view from Riverlea 65
Photo 18: One year old from 'Zombie' on oxygen machine 66
Photo 19: Aunt Rose with her oxygen machine 66
Photo 20: Pennielope Paulsen passed away on 1 February 2017 66
Photo 21: Central Rand Gold dust bucket - Riverlea Community Centre 68
Photo 22: Durban Roodepoort Deep employee collecting dust buckets 70
Photo 23: Central Rand Gold operation behind T.C. Esterhuysen Primary School 72
Photo 24: Collapsed access road 72
Photo 25: Dust storm over Riverlea 76
Photo 26: The dry, windy month of August 76
Photo 27: Total dissolved solids measurement at the Booysens River 77
Photo 28: Measuring acidity and total dissolved solids at the Booysens River 77
Photo 29: Durban Roodepoort Deep operation in Riverlea spraying the re-mined dump 78
Photo 30: Burst mine pipe spilling into Booysens River 79
Photo 31: The Booysens River and Klipspruit silted up with white tailings sand 79
Photo 32: Riverlea community residents blocking off an access road to Durban
Roodepoort Deep operations 80
Photo 33: Diepkloof, in the valley below mine tailings storage facility 82
Photo 34: Dust storm over Diepkloof 84
Photo 35: Crown Mine Complex in relation to Riverlea and Diepkloof Zones 3 and 4 86
Photo 36: Tailings spillage point 87
Photo 37: Cattle grazing and drinking at the polluted Klipspruit 87
Photo 38: Sulphur-encrusted grass 88
Photo 39: Total dissolved solids and pH measurements near Diepkloof 88
Photo 40: Low pH in stream below Shaft 17 tailings 88
Photo 41: High total dissolved solids reading 89
Photo 42: Focus group discussion in Diepkloof Zone 4 89
Photo 43: Albertina Sisulu Youth Correctional Facility 90
Photo 44: Meadowlands in the shadow of Vogelstruisfontein mine waste 91
Photo 45: Dust bucket in Meadowlands 93
Photo 46: Meadowlands residential blocks 94
Photo 47: Tebogo's skin condition 95
Photo 48: Radioactivity readings obtained in Meadowlands 96
Photo 49: Doornkop informal settlement 100
Photo 50: Two physically and mentally challenged children - Doornkop 102
Photo 51: Doornkop tailings and surrounding communities 106
Photo 52: Children swimming in tailings water below the Doornkop tailings waste facility 106
Photo 53 Tailings mud flooding into land from Doornkop tailings waste facility 107
Photo 54 Breach in the wall of evaporation/holding pond 107
Photo 55 Tailings water streaming through breach in tailings pond wall 108
Photo 56 Farming in a tailings wasteland below Doornkop tailings waste facility 108
Photo 57 Water bubbling up in the kitchen and bedroom - Doornkop 109

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Radiation risks 29

Table 2: Analyses of water chemistry for Western, Central and Eastern mining basins 36
Table 3: Infant deaths - Pimville, Orlando and Western Township (1940) 56
Table 4: Crown Mines returns on investment (1934 1940) 56
Table 5: Riverlea population by race 63
Table 6: ERGO Gold Dust Monitoring Forum 71

xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AD Anno Domini
AMD Acid Mine Drainage
ARD Acid Rock Drainage
ASTM Standard Test Method
CANSA Cancer Association of South Africa
CER Centre for Environmental Rights
COJ City of Johannesburg
CRG Central Rand Gold
CSIR Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research
DMR Department of Mineral Resources
DRD Durban Roodepoort Deep
DWAF Department of Water Affairs
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EMO ERGO Mining Operations
EMP Environmental Management Plan
ERPM East Rand Property Mines
FSE Federation for a Sustainable Environment
GDARD Gauteng Department of Economic and Rural Development
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection
JSE Johannesburg Stock Exchange
LHR Lawyers for Human Rights
LRC Legal Resources Centre
MPRDA Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act
Sv microSievert
mSv milliSievert (measure for radioactivity)
NASREC National Arts, Sport, Recreational and Expo Centre
NEMA National Environmental Management Act
NGO Non-governmental Organisation
NIOH National Institute for Occupational Health
NNR National Nuclear Regulator
NORM Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material
NWU North-West University
PM Particulate Matter
RCF Riverlea Community Forum
RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme
RWMF Radioactive Waste Management Fund
SALDRU South African Labour Development Research Unit
SANRAL South African National Roads Agency

xiv
SANS South African National Standards
SAPS South African Police Services
SASOL South African State Oil Company
SLP Social and Labour Plan
SOWETO South Western Townships
TB Tuberculosis
TDS Total Dissolved Solids
TSF Tailings Storage Facilities
TWF Tailings Waste Facilities
UK United Kingdom
US United States
VPCR Voices of the Poor Concerned Residents
WHO World Health Organisation
WNLA Witwatersrand Native Labour Association

xv
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report stems from the Bench Marks Foundations concern about issues of ethical
investment, corporate social responsibility and accountability in South Africa. This year, 2017,
marks ten years of reporting by the Bench Marks Foundation on the impact of mining on
near-mine communities and on the environment. Most of our work up to now has focused on
rural communities on the platinum belt in the North-West Province and Limpopo, the
diamond fields along the west coast of South Africa, and the coal fields in Mpumalanga. Yet,
our offices in Marshall Street, Johannesburg, are in the heart of the city where the mining
revolution in South Africa first captured the global imagination after the discovery of gold in
1886.

The focus of this report is on the people who provided the sweat equity for that mineral
revolution, but who were precluded by political fiat from participating in either the
ownership of the mines or in the wealth generated by them, namely the African majority in
South Africa. Their labour was needed, but their presence in the City of Gold was resented.
Consequently, they were forced to live on the worst, least valuable land in the city, namely
the land on which both urban and mine waste was deposited.

Industrial mining in Johannesburg is more-or-less done and dusted. However, the destructive
environmental and health impact of mining on the near-mine communities rages on
unabated.

The research team involved in this study chose the communities of Riverlea, Diepkloof,
Meadowlands and Doornkop (in Snake Park) as focus communities because they are located
where the mine waste belt ends. The people in these communities live in the shadow of
immense mine waste dumps and, as this report will show, with dire consequences. The team
chose the Community of Danville in Mafikeng as a control study, because Danville is a
township with housing that has asbestos roofs and in all ways approximates Riverlea,
Diepkloof, Meadowlands and Snake Park, except that there is no mining in close proximity to
Danville (past or present).

The report starts with a socio-geological historical overview that addresses key questions
about popular international and national perceptions about Soweto. Although the first forced
resettlements of people in Kliptown (a township in Soweto) took place between 1904 and
1906, academic interest in Sowetos history seems to start only with the student uprisings of
1976.

This is followed by an outline of the geological history of the Witwatersrand in general and
the basin in which Soweto, as a collection of townships, evolved. This geological history is
important because many of both the positive and negative impacts of mining the longest-

xvi
lasting gold reef in the world derive from it. The impacts on water, air, soil, ecosystems and
human health and well-being, hydrology and metrology is also investigated, for on the Rand
the predominant directions of the wind will determine who eats dust, and in which direction
sewage and waste flows.

The history of Soweto is then traced, showing how it was shaped by concerns for the health
and well-being of Johannesburgs white European population, and their racial attitudes
towards the black African population. The dependence of the white population and that of
the mining industry on the cheap labour supplied by the black population led to an
overdeveloped suburban society on the northern side of the ridge that separates
Johannesburg from the underdeveloped, poverty stricken South Western Townships
(Soweto), where cheap dormitory housing was built for Johannesburgs black working class.
This separation of races was central to apartheid, which had a political dimension, an
economic/class dimension, a physical geographical dimension and an ecological dimension,
which, as Vandana Shiva points out, is unfolding globally as we speak (Shiva, 2012).

Finally, the empirical findings from the four Soweto communities, Riverlea, Diepkloof,
Meadowlands and Doornkop (in Snake Park informal settlement) are outlined in more detail,
although it has been touched upon throughout the report. The health concerns raised are
traced to their possible origins in the impacts of mining along the Eastern, Northern and
North-Western rim of Soweto. A control study was carried out in Danville Township near
Mafikeng, where there is no mining at all (past or present).

The major findings are:

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a real threat to the well-being of the inhabitants of all
the townships adjacent to mining activities, whether in active operation, ownerless,
derelict or abandoned;
While laws and regulations exist and existed in the past, failure by previous and
current governments to enforce the laws and regulations has caused the problem to
spiral out of control;
That townships, the industrial zones, a school and a higher education facility near
mine waste facilities such as tailings dams was a calculated geological location, as well
as the deliberate siting of tailings dams near townships;
That there is a deliberate location of mine waste near rivers and water sources, and
extensive spillage from mining operations and mine waste facilities into streams,
wetlands and rivers;
Mining voids fill up with water. As a result, heavy metal contamination is caused when
metals such as uranium, arsenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc
contained in excavated rock or exposed in an underground mine come into contact
with water and decant on the surface;

xvii
 Mine tailings waste facilities: it was found to be common that mine tailings waste
facilities (TWFs) are unguarded, unfenced and not properly signposted;
Dust levels downwind from mining activities are a constant threat to the health and
wellbeing of the inhabitants of the adjacent townships, particularly during the windy
season; and
The selected households of Danville Township in Mafikeng, North-West Province, in
the control study, presented with fewer ailments than those of the researched near-
mine communities in Soweto.

The full details of the findings, as well as recommendations to various stakeholders

responsible for remedial action, including a recommendation with regard to an awareness
programme for the members of the researched townships, are provided under Findings and
Recommendations at the end of this report.

xviii
1. INTRODUCTION

The South-Western Townships (Soweto) Mining and Community Health Research Project is a
three-year venture that commenced in 2014. It was commissioned by the Bench Marks
Foundation (BMF) and funded by Christian Aid - Fleiszer Legacy. The Bench Marks Centre for
CSR (BMC) at the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) is a partner of the BMF and
participated in the research. This study was undertaken to establish whether there was a link
between working and abandoned mines and mine waste bordering the township of Soweto,
and health problems in the community residing in the township.

The extraction of minerals such as gold, uranium, silver, lead, copper, coal and platinum from
the earth is carried out in a manner that is inherently threatening to human health. Many
studies have focused on work-related illnesses suffered by mineworkers, yet relatively few
have been conducted on the greater impact of mining on the wider environment and its
effects on people living downwind and downstream of the mines.

The researchers drew on both literature and an empirical study conducted in five
geographical areas in greater Soweto, namely Diepkloof, Riverlea, Snake Park, Davidsonville
and Meadowlands. A control study in the selected households of Danville Township in
Mafikeng, North-West Province was also conducted. The results of the research show a
negative relationship between operating and abandoned mines and the health status of
communities in the five areas.

2. OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this research was not only to fill a gap in the scientific literature, but
also to address health risks for people living near working and abandoned mines and mine
waste and to build up evidence-based information elicited from the general population and
that of Soweto. This could be used in possible actions against badly managed mine
operations, or against mine owners that illegally abandoned mines near Soweto. Thus it was
necessary to establish a link between both working and abandoned mines, as well as mine
waste bordering the township of Soweto, and health problems in the township community.
These issues have not been researched in Soweto.

The secondary research objectives are to:

(i) Determine how mining activities and their disposal of toxic waste impact the health of
the people living in identified townships in Soweto;
(ii) Develop guidelines on how mines can address and minimise the health risks of people
living near mines;

1
(iii) Build up evidence-based information on the people in the above-mentioned
townships in Soweto whose health has been affected negatively by the disposal of
toxic waste; and
(iv) Compare the results of the research with the results of a control group in Danville
Township in Mafikeng, North-West Province.

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research procedures

Two basic research procedures were used for the project, namely:
Literature review; and
Qualitative and quantitative information collection methods.

The literature review was used specifically to construct an overview of the mining industry in
South Africa and to review applicable policies and practices. More generally, it was also used
to conceptualise and contextualise all the facets of the research. Books, scientific journal
articles, popular articles, newspapers, reports, annual reports of mining companies,
government reports, health reports, maps, conference proceedings and databases, as well as
the internet, were used as sources. Relevant mining, geological, geographical and
metrological studies of the Witwatersrand were also sourced, as well as a review of the
historical, sociological and legislative research of the Witwatersrand area.

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to gather empirical information.
The qualitative approach (through interviews and focus groups) was followed because it
enabled the respondents to expand their points of view without being limited to fixed
answers in a questionnaire. The Household Health Survey Questionnaire was used to elicit
specific, quantifiable information available around household demographics, incidences of
illnesses, and the availability of health services.

There are important elements for increasing the trustworthiness of qualitative research
(Fitzhenry et al., 1970, pp. 71, 104) such as:
Reliability/Consistency of the data: the extent to which the investigations are
repeatable with the same subjects, or in a similar context;
Applicability: the degree to which the findings can be applied to other contexts and
settings, or to other groups; and
Validity: the degree to which the findings are premised solely on information supplied
by the informants and the conditions of the research and no other biases.

The researchers tried their utmost to guide the research according to these elements during
the study.

2
3.2 Data collection methods

The two dominant data collection approaches employed within any scientific research study
are either quantitative or qualitative in nature (Mouton et al., 2006, p. 579). Considering the
research objectives, questions and purpose of this study, the most appropriate approach for
this research was a mixed-method (including both quantitative and qualitative methods) in
order to gain an accurate understanding of the correlation between the constructs (Van Dijk,
2015, pp. 30-31). Mixed-method research is described as the systematic combination of
qualitative and quantitative methods in research used to generate different types of data,
which could enhance the quality of the study (Du Plessis & Majam, 2010, pp. 456, 459). The
mixed-method guarantees a real reflection and application of the considered variables in
practice. It, therefore, yields more comprehensive evidence than a single method could
produce (Du Plessis & Majam, 2010, pp. 456, 459, 464; Van Dijk, 2015, pp. 30-31). The
collection of both quantitative and qualitative data is therefore used to gain greater clarity on
the correlation between questions of the interviews, focus groups and questionnaires.

The data collection methods included interviews, focus group discussions, and the use of key
informants, researcher observations and questionnaires. The interviews were conducted with
household members, community members and focus groups within communities, such as the
Riverlea Community Forum (RCF), church congregations, the Catholic Commission for Justice
and Peace, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and mine representatives, as well as
government officials, such as representatives of City Parks in Johannesburg, Department of
Mineral Resources (DMR) officials, the South African Police Services (SAPS), the Metro Police
and others.

The research team chose the communities of Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands, and Snake
Park as focus communities because they are located where the mine waste belt ends.
Davidsonville, a small coloured community to the North-West of Soweto, was also included
because the people in that community live in the shadow of immense mine waste dumps
and, as this report will show, with dire consequences. The Davidsonville community
successfully took a transgressing mining community to court and was included not for
reporting processes but for what the Bench Marks Foundation and the monitoring school
could learn from their experience (Nelson, 26 November 2010). The team chose the
Community of Danville in Mafikeng as a control study because Danville is a township with
housing that has asbestos roofs and in all ways approximates Riverlea, Diepkloof,
Meadowlands, Snake Park and Davidsonville, except that there is no mining near Danville.

The interviews with community members were semi-structured, based on a list of topics
related to the interaction between mining companies and communities; in particular, the
environmental, cultural, socioeconomic, political and health impacts of mining on the
selected communities were investigated. A degree of flexibility was allowed in the interviews

3
to assist the interviewer(s) to probe deeper when it was felt that more relevant information
could be obtained through further questioning. The questions and topics were not
necessarily asked in the same order each time because this depended on the way the
interview developed. This allowed the person being interviewed a degree of freedom to voice
concerns and to participate in directing the flow of the conversation. These in-depth
interviews assisted in clarifying what themes and topics were important, what the major
concerns of individuals and communities were and the relationships between different strata
within communities, such as local workers and migrants.

Focus groups (of eight to 12 people) and interviewees were selected purposely to take into
account gender, race, migrant or local status, age and specific interest groups (e.g. people
with health conditions). Some of the focus groups, however, had a mixed composition. To
enhance the scientific nature of the study, the researchers (interviewers) were drawn from
the local communities. Notes were taken of interviews, and some interviews/focus group
sessions were tape recorded. Several individuals in different areas were also used as key
informants, such as a local pastor and several selected males and females who lived in the
areas. Patton (2002, p. 321) describes key informants as [] people who are particularly
knowledgeable about the inquiry setting and are articulate about their knowledge people
whose insights can prove particularly useful in helping an observer understand what is
happening and why. Participatory observation was also used to gather information. Several
observations (e.g. unemployment, poor service delivery and housing, employer/employee
dynamics, air and dust pollution, etc.) were made by participants that gave insight into the
research settings.

The Household Health Survey Questionnaire, based on the World Health Organisations
(WHO) World Health Survey Guide, was used (WHO, 2002) to obtain empirical information.
The research was also guided by the Bench Marks Framework, Principles for Global Corporate
Responsibility: Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance (Bench Marks Foundation,
2003). The Bench Marks Framework is considered one of the four leading corporate
responsibility measuring tools globally. Notably, this document forms the framework for
research, measurement and action on corporate behaviour. The questionnaires (see
Appendix 1) were administered to 400 households: 100 in Riverlea, 100 in Diepkloof, 100 in
Meadowlands and 100 in Doornkop (an informal settlement in Snake Park). An additional 50
households were surveyed in Davidsonville, a small coloured community to the North-West
of Soweto. The communities were selected for their proximity to current, derelict,
abandoned or ownerless mines along the northern edge of Soweto, parallel to Main Reef
Road. The households were selected by using random sampling, which meant everyone in
the community had the same chance of being selected (e.g. by visiting every fifth house in a
certain geographical area to request that the inhabitants complete a questionnaire).

4
Over a week-long period in August 2016 the questionnaires were administered, and the
interviews and focus groups conducted. The empirical data was gathered by Charles van der
Merwe (Riverlea); Rapule Moiloa (Diepkloof); Israel Mosala (Meadowlands); Theodore Tiny
Dlamini (Doornkop/Snake Park); and Celeste van Rensburg (Davidsonville). Data was collected
in the control group in Danville, Mafikeng by Chris Molebatsi, who used the same
questionnaire. The interviewers were all competent in English and spoke the dominant
languages of the communities in which they administered the questionnaires.

The data collectors attended a workshop, presented by the Bench Marks Centre for CSR at
the North-West University (NWU), which was facilitated by the NWUs Prof Freek Cronj, Ms
Suzanne Reyneke and Prof Eddie Bain, as well as Mr David van Wyk and Mr Brown Motsau of
the Bench Marks Foundation. The purpose was to provide training for the selected field
workers. They were educated on the methodology of field research (random and non-
random sampling, the completion of the questionnaires and conducting interviews), as well
as the way in which the prospective respondents needed to be approached and dealt with,
both while completing questionnaires and during interviews. They were also taught the
ethical requirements relevant to such research (for example, stating the purpose of the
research, completion of a consent form, voluntariness, not to influence the respondents in
answering the questionnaire, anonymity, and freedom to participate and withdraw at any
time).

3.3 Data analysis

The interviews with the respondents were translated, where necessary, and transcribed. The
content of the data was then analysed using a conceptual (thematic) analysis. A preliminary
thematic analysis at the end of the fieldwork period(s) also provided the structure in which
this report is being presented.

According to Palmquist et al. (2005), the process of conceptual analysis comprises eight
steps, namely:
Deciding on the level of analysis;
Deciding on how many concepts to code for;
Deciding whether to code for the existence or frequency of a concept;
Deciding how to distinguish among the concepts;
Developing rules for the coding of texts;
Deciding what to do with irrelevant information;
Coding of texts; and
Analysing results.

5
A more theoretical (in contrast to a practical) approach, that is, the interpretation of written
sources (literature control; also see literature review) was used as the basic point of
departure for the analysis and interpretation of the results.

The quantitative data was used as a verification of the qualitative data by illustrating the
opinions of respondents in a quantified manner. Quantitative data analysis was done by
manually analysing information obtained from the questionnaires. The questionnaires were
analysed by the Statistical Consultations Services of the NWU, Potchefstroom Campus.

3.4 Ethical considerations

The following ethical considerations were always kept in mind while conducting the research:

Voluntary participation: no participant was forced to participate in the research, and

they were free to withdraw from the research at any stage.
No harm to participants: the researcher ensured that no physical or psychological
harm was done to the participants because of the study.
Anonymity and confidentiality: all the information gathered during the study was dealt
with confidentially, and permission obtained from the participants for all information
to be shared publicly. Permission was also obtained from all individuals who were
photographed to use these photographs where required.
Not deceiving the subjects: participants were informed concerning the aim, the
purpose and the procedures of the study, and were not deceived in any way.

The research project received an ethics approval certificate from the NWU. The ethics
approval certificate number is N W U - 0 0 2 7 9 - 1 6 - A 7. The project report was subjected
to critical review and reading processes (see Acknowledgements) towards the end of the
project so as to enhance the scientific quality of the research.

The research results will be disseminated in the following ways:

They will be communicated to all the affected mining corporations for their comment
prior to the results being made public;
They will also be sent to the relevant government departments and
Constitutional/Chapter 9 Institutions;
They will be presented at a launch of the research in August 2017, at which
representatives of all the stakeholders will be present;
They will be shared at community workshops in the researched communities and with
community monitors to empower them to understand and use the research results in
their engagement with mining concerns;

6
 They will be published in scientific publications, outlined in academic addresses, and
made known via popular media and the internet.

3.5 Limitations of the research

The researchers experienced difficulties engaging with the mining companies and to get
members of mine management to respond to correspondence directed through, for
example, the Riverlea Community Forum (RCF) an exercise requiring several follow-up
telephone calls and e-mails.

In principle, the Bench Marks Foundation prefers to engage with corporations with and
through communities about the issues that are of concern to communities, thereby assisting
communities to develop the confidence to engage with power and stand up for their
constitutional and legal rights. This is also to avoid a dependency situation developing
between the community and the non-governmental organisation (NGO). The research
process thereby becomes a vehicle for community self-discovery, organisation and advocacy.
To this end, we attach examples of communication between community structures and the
corporations involved, the state and other role players in Appendix 2. Not all the communities
were equally well organised. The RCF is composed of well educated, middle class, salaried
individuals who have access to the internet and the latest communication tools. In Diepkloof,
we interacted with the Voices of the Poor Concerned Residents (VPCR), who are also fairly
well organised. However, there is no formal resident organisation in Meadowlands, while in
Doornkop informal settlement, the community is only starting to coalesce around Tiny
Dlamini (key informant and data collector). This is a matter that Bench Marks Foundation will
have to address after the report is published through the monitoring school.

Photo 1: Voices of the Poor Concerned Residents meeting in Diepkloof

7
Photo 2: Meeting of the Riverlea Community Forum

The research subjects in the area were generally cooperative, although a number were
extremely fearful of perceived security and economic consequences for their families and
themselves should they in any way be identifiable from the research.

The household health survey provided us with community members perceptions and
information regarding their health, health services and the perceived impacts of mining on
their health. However, it would require a proper epidemiological study to determine a direct
correlation between tailings 1 dust and respiratory problems in these communities, such as
blood tests, to determine the presence or otherwise of toxic substances that might also be
present in the mine waste. Unfortunately, the Bench Marks Foundation does not have the
capacity or technology to carry out such a study.

4. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

What is Soweto known for today? As the place where Nelson and Winnie Mandela had a
modest house in the early 1960s? As a place where two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Nelson
Mandela and Desmond Tutu, lived in the same street, namely Vilakazi Street?

1
Tailings, also called mine dumps, culm dumps, slimes, tails, refuse, leach residue or slickens, are the
materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue)
of an ore. Tailings are distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlies an ore
or mineral body and is displaced during mining without being processed. The amount of tailings can be large,
ranging from 90% 98% for some copper ores to 20% 50% of the other (less valuable) minerals. The
extraction of minerals from ore can be done two ways: placer mining, which uses water and gravity to
concentrate the valuable minerals, or hard rock mining, which pulverizes the rock containing the ore and then
relies on chemical reactions to concentrate the sought-after material. In the latter, the extraction of minerals
from ore requires comminution, i.e., grinding the ore into fine particles to facilitate extraction of the target
element(s). Because of this comminution, tailings consist of a slurry of fine particles, ranging from the size of a
grain of sand to a few micrometres. Mine tailings are usually produced from the mill in slurry form, which is a
mixture of fine mineral particles and water (Wikipedia, 2017).

8
 As the place where there was a student uprising in 1976? (The Museum of this uprising is
now a tourist attraction) As the place where Regina Mundi Church, an iconic site in the
struggle against apartheid, is located? As the place where the Freedom Charter was signed in
1955 in the suburb of Kliptown? Or as a romanticised tourist attraction for foreign tourists?
Few people bother about why it was created in the first place, or when it started, and what
its relationship was to mining activity on the Witwatersrand main reef, which forms the
northern border of the township. Hardly anyone knows about the underground architecture
and map of Soweto. No one cares that it served as a dormitory to house millions of black
South Africans who were, and still are, the subaltern working population in Johannesburg and
its lush suburbs.

The history, health and welfare of Soweto and its people are inextricably linked to the history
of gold mining, colonialism and apartheid yet little research has been done into the history of
the location prior to the forced removals of black people from Sophiatown and other parts
of white Johannesburg in the 1950s and early 1960s (Phillips, 2014). Although health and
hygiene concerns about the City of Johannesburg (COJ) was used to stereotype and then to
justify the earliest forced removals of black people from Johannesburg to Kliptown as early as
1904-1906 (Kennedy, 1984, p. 46), very little historical research has been done on the
development of, and the current health status of communities in Soweto, or about the
location of Soweto in relation to the Reef and gold mining. It is for this reason that Bench
Marks Foundation, with the assistance of Christian Aid, decided to take on this mammoth
task.

The task at hand required the research team to delve into geology, geography, meteorology,
nuclear sciences, chemistry, health sciences, anthropology, sociology, economics, mining,
history and economic history.

4.1 Geological history

The geological history is described by referring to the basin (geological depression) where
gold was discovered and its early developments, the importance of water in gold mining, the
sister heavy metals of gold and their influence on adjacent communities, as well as dust and
radioactivity.

4.1.1 Basin, drain, inland sea

A basin is a geological depression, but might also be referred to as a zinc (sink) in South
Africa. A kitchen zinc in particular. Most South Africans have been exposed to black women
portrayed as domestic workers, derogatorily referred to as nannies, meide, kitchen girls,

9
house-helps etc. These are the location or township 2 women who come to the suburbs of
Johannesburg daily to clean the living spaces of the suburban middle classes and the wealthy
madams. Many of them travel from Soweto, situated in a basin below the Witwatersrand,
into which both the sewage and mine waste of Johannesburg drains. No amount of
dishwashing liquid or scrubbing will cleanse the locations they come from. They come from
places such as Diepkloof, Pimville, Kliptown, Meadowlands, Snake Park Orlando, etc. Their
mothers and grandmothers were cleansed out of Sophiatown, Doornfontein, Emmarentia
and other parts of Johannesburg and washed and rinsed by colonialism, racism and apartheid
into the basin that is Soweto. Considered not to be clean enough, hygienic enough or
civilised enough to take up residence in town, but hard working enough to clean, make
hygienic and spruce up the City of Johannesburg and its suburbs daily. Such is the
intersection of the socio-geology and political geography and economy of Soweto.

Millions of years ago, gold drained into this basin, carried there by rivers, and settled along
the northern and western edges/beaches of an inland sea. C. Biccard Jeppes (1946)
description of the location and topography of the Witwatersrand remains one of the best
available to us:

The western and central portions of the Witwatersrand goldfields lie to the south of a series of
parallel ridges, which form abrupt escarpments on their northern side; from there the name
Witwatersrand (The Ridge of White Waters) has been derived []. These ridges, extending
over a distance of some 35 miles (with one two-mile break), and several miles in width, form a
watershed between the tributaries of the Limpopo and Crocodile Rivers to the North (flowing
into the Indian Ocean) and those of the Vaal and Orange Rivers (which flow into the Atlantic
Ocean) to the south []. The mines of the Central Rand lie in a depression, with ridges and hills
further to the South and South-West. (Jeppe, 1946, p. 35)

Soweto lies in a basin to the South and South-West and directly below the mines of the
Central Rand, from Langlaagte and Crown Mines in the East through to Durban Roodepoort
Deep (DRD) and Doornkop in the West. This location means that much of the runoff from the
Vaal River watershed runs down off the Witwatersrand ridge, and past the mines and mine
waste (forming a chain stretching from the North-East of Soweto to the North-West of the
location) through Soweto.

The topographical elevation map below shows the steep drop from the ridge that comprises
the Witwatersrand to the basin that is Soweto. It is a flood risk map but also shows that the
rivers flow down from the Reef through Soweto and towards the Vaal River.

2
Townships in South Africa denotes urban locations allocated to the housing black workers.

10
Map 1: Topographical map of Soweto

Source: FloodMap.net, 2017

Significantly, after an outbreak of the plague in Johannesburg in 1903-1904, the authorities

decided to shut down Kaffir Locations 3, as it was called, situated to the West of
Johannesburg, and to relocate the Asian and African populations to Kliptown (later to
become Lenasia and Soweto). Klipspruit was also targeted to become the sewage works of
Johannesburg, which it now is (Kennedy, 1984, p. 46).

Graph 1: Elevation of Johannesburg relative to Soweto

North to South Elevation Soweto (Meters

1800
above sea level)

1700

1600

1500

1400
Robertville Kliprivier

Source: Adapted from map above

3
The words Meide, Coolie and Kaffir are derogatory words that do not reflect the views of the authors of
this paper, but rather the racism of the time.

11
Geologists tell us that millions of years ago the interior of South Africa was covered by an
inland sea, the edge of which stretched from where Nigel is now, on the Far East Rand,
through the South of Springs, Brakpan, Boksburg, Germiston, Johannesburg, Roodepoort,
Randfontein, Carletonville, Stilfontein, Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Orkney,Allanridge,
Odendaalsrus and Welkom in the South. This sea filled a vast inland basin, and rivers and
streams flowed into it from surrounding highlands, depositing pebbles, sand and gold all
along the edge or beach of this sea. This layer of gold, the so-called Reef was covered, over
many millennia, by layers of mud which, in turn, became layers of sedimentary rock or shale
measuring thousands of meters thick. The impact of a meteorite that struck the earths
surface at Vredefort Dome and movements of geological plates pushed parts of the Reef to
the surface. These parts are referred to as outcrops composed of shale and mixed layers of
sediment known as bankets 4 or conglomerates of pebbles (Truswell, 1970, pp. 27-40) and
sand which contain a bouquet of minerals, including gold, silver, copper, iron, uranium, lead
and arsenic.

Map 2: Soweto in relation to South Africa's goldfields

Source: Macnab, 1987

4
Reportedly named after a grainy Dutch biscuit, similar to a chocolate chip cookie.

12
Map 3: Discovery sites of gold in the Witwatersrand region from 1874-1886

Source: Cairncross & Dickson, 1999, p. 33

Map 4: Gold mines were established further afield after the discovery of gold on the
Witwatersrand (1886)

Source: Cairncross & Dickson, 1999, p. 33

13
 The Witwatersrand Basin is the largest known gold producing area in the world and the
deposits have now been worked for well over 100 years and are believed to have produced
about 98% of South Africa's gold. Gold is produced from seven goldfields within the basin,
mainly from conglomerate horizons of the Witwatersrand, Ventersdorp and Transvaal
Supergroups.

The Witwatersrand Basin is located on the Kaapvaal Craton in South Africa and is an oval-
shaped basin, covering an area of some 400 km NE-SW and some 180 km NW-SE, of which
approximately 84 000 km2 consist of outcrop and an often deeply buried subgroup of the
Witwatersrand Supergroup sedimentary and sub-ordinate volcanic sequences.

The Witwatersrand Supergroup is underlain by an Archaean granite-greenstone basement

more than 3.1 billion years old and the Dominion Group, which is about 3.074 to 3.086
billion years old. It is unconformably overlain by rocks of the Ventersdorp (2.7 billion years
old), Transvaal (2.6 billion years old) and Karoo (302 to 180 million years ago) supergroups.

The area within the basin is composed of the generally non-mineralized West Rand Group
(also known as the Lower Witwatersrand Supergroup) covering an area of some 54 000 km2,
and the Central Rand Group (also known as the Upper Witwatersrand Supergroup)
consisting of gold and uranium rich terrains over an area of some 30 000 km2, in which are
the major producing gold and uranium mines of South Africa.

The origin of gold mineralization in the Witwatersrand Basin has been debated for at least
100 years. The debate has been divided between the synergenetic or placer and the
epigenetic or hydrothermal models. The most widely accepted model currently appears to
be the modified placer model in which grains of placer gold have been remobilized after
burial.

The goldfields are therefore considered to represent major, diachronous entry points of
coarse-grained sediments into the basin and appear to be laterally coalesced fluvial braid-
plains, where gold was concentrated within the conglomerates developed primarily on
unconformities.

Deposition in the Witwatersrand Basin is considered to have taken place along the interface
between a fluvial system and a major body of still water or an inland sea, with the source of
the gold postulated to be a northerly Archaean Greenstone belt in which plate interactions
caused the development of mineralizing hydrothermal activity and generated sedimentary
environments where gold-bearing deposition could occur. The basin is filled with
approximately 14 000 m of sedimentary and subordinate volcanic rocks, which have folded
along a South-West to North-East axis into an asymmetrical syncline (Superior Mining, 2016).

4.1.2 The official beginning and early development of gold mining

Before 1886, when the district of Heidelberg in the Transvaal, or Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek,
came into existence, three districts, namely Potchefstroom, Pretoria and Rustenburg,
surrounding villages of the same names, contained certain farms that lay within the area
known as the Witwatersrand (the ridge with white waters). Contrary to the view that this

14
was a dry arid flat area, it was well-watered, well defined, stood out prominently from a
distance and it is not surprising to find that physical features were described with regard to
this distinctive geographical feature (Gray, 1937, p. 74).

Johannesburg came into existence in 1886 when President Paul Kruger of the Zuid
Afrikaansche Republiek proclaimed the following farms to be public gold diggings during
September and October 1886. In September 1886 the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR,
later, Transvaal) government declared the farm Langlaagte and eight others all of which
were in Afrikaner farmers possession officially open as public diggings, which led to the
establishment of the biggest gold-mining operations in the world. A translated version of the
Government Gazette (Staats Courant) of September 8, 1886, referred to as the birth notice
of the Rand, reads as follows (Jacobsson, 1936, pp. 17-18):

Whereas it appears to the Government of the South African Republic that it is advisable
that the farms named Driefontein, Elandsfontein, southern portion Doornfontein,
Turffontein, Government farm Randjeslaagte, Langlaagte, Paardekraal, Vogelstruisfontein
and Roodepoort, all situate in the Witwatersrand, district Heidelberg, be declared a public
digging.

Now, therefore, I STEPHANUS, JOHANNES PAULUS KRUGER, State President of the South
African Republic, in terms of Article 5 of Law No. 8, 1885, do proclaim the abovementioned
farms a Public Digging in the following order and from the following dates respectively,
namely:
The farms Driefontein and Elandsfontein on Monday, 20th September, 1886;
The southern portion of the farm Doornfontein and the farm Turffontein on Monday,
27th September, 1886;
The piece of Government ground named Randjeslaagte and the farm Langlaagte on
Monday, 4th October, 1886; and
The farms named Paardekraal and Vogelstruisfontein and Roodepoort on Monday, 11th
October 1886, in so far as the same have not been beaconed off by owners or lessees
for Mynpacht-brieven or according to Article 20 of Law 8, 1885 as reserved cultivated
lands, gardens, agricultural lands and water leadings, in the vicinity thereof.

GOD PRESERVE LAND AND PEOPLE

Given under my hand at the Government Offices at Pretoria, on this, the 8th day of
September, A.D. 1886.
(Sgd.) S.J.P. KRUGER, State President.
(Sgd.) W. EDUARD BOK, State Secretary.

Gold prospecting was, therefore, happening on several farms in the district. However, the
farm on which the first gold-rich conglomerates were discovered was Langlaagte, Ward
Kliprivier and District Heidelberg, about 250m north of the modern coloured township of
Riverlea.

15
The discovery in 1886 of the auriferous conglomerates of the Witwatersrand Main Reef
Series was regarded by the Government as a new discovery of payable gold in a new era and
its obligation was discharged according to the Gold Law by allowing (George) Harrison and
(George) Walker each to work a discoverers claim given to them by Gerhardus Cornelius
Oosthuizen without payment of claim licence. (Gray, p. 82) They paid the government in
Pretoria for the licence instead. Johannesburg started its existence as an informal settlement,
as the Transvaal Chamber of Mines noted in 1927: Johannesburg commenced as many other
mining camps have done. It was a mere collection of iron shanties [and tents and wagons];
there were no well-defined roads and the suburbs of the town which are today populated by
thousands of people were at that time considered to be right out in the veld. (Transvaal
Chamber of Mines, 1927, p. 11)

Photo 3: Settlement of tents and wagons

Source: Jacobsson, 1936

Photo 4: Digging for gold on the Witwatersrand (1886)

Source: Cameron & Spies, 1986, p. 187

16
Photo 5: Open slanted stopes (1886)

Source: Cameron & Spies, 1986, p. 187

The effect of the discovery was massive: it helped to lift the entire country out of the
depression of the 1880s and into a new phase of growth. This growth was the result of the
development of gold mining on the Witwatersrand and was achieved by the combined
operation and influence of the following:
Uniformity and extent of the gold-bearing deposits;
Improvements and adaptations of the mechanical and chemical processes of gold
mining;
Proximity of valuable coal deposits;
Ability to attract a large amount of foreign capital; and
Cheap unskilled labour (De Kock, 1924, p. 243).

4.1.3 Water and gold (fountains, fissures and aquifers)

The role that water played in depositing gold along the reef or edge of the inland sea at the
centre of what is now South Africa, was discussed above. However, there are other important
links between water and gold that must be mentioned, for these links will have an important
role in the political economy, spatial arrangements and history of Johannesburg and Soweto.

In the undisturbed, natural environment, minerals and water coexist. The natural erosion of
rock outcrops allows the naturally required amounts of minerals to be released into rivers
and streams in quantities required for sustaining plants and animals, yet, when mining
occurs, that natural balance is disturbed, with disastrous consequences.

17
If one looks at a map and the names of towns that sprang up all along the gold reef, one
cannot help but notice the references to sources of water in these place names, such as
Springs, Brakpan (brackish pan), Turffontein (Peat fountain), Braamfontein (Braam fountain),
Randfontein (Rand fountain) etc. These names do not only refer to the farms that existed
before the towns sprang up along the reef, but also to the fact that, although the area in
which Johannesburg evolved has relatively low annual rainfall, it was rich in springs and
fountains, indicating an abundance of groundwater before mining started. In fact, naturally
eroding minerals into water systems are healthy and provide living organisms with the
minerals they require for a healthy existence.

Water is essential to life in our country and the planet. A prerequisite for sustainable human
development must be to ensure uncontaminated streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. After the
recent three-year (2014-2017) drought and water restrictions, there is growing public
concern about the condition of our water resources in and around Johannesburg and South
Africa as a whole. South Africa is a water-scarce country and ranks as one of the 30 driest
countries in the world, with an average rainfall of about 40% less than the annual world
average rainfall. South Africa has an average annual rainfall of less than 500mm, while that of
the world is about 850mm (South African Government, 2015). The public is becoming
increasingly aware of the ways in which mining affects fresh water through the heavy use of
water in processing ore, and through water pollution from discharged mine effluent and
seepage from tailings and waste rock (material not containing commercial quantities of
target material) impoundments.

Mining is increasingly threatening the water sources on which we all depend, and we become
concerned when the National Department of Water Affairs (DWAF) issues directives against
the use of borehole and stream water, because of contamination (Cloete, 2008). According to
James Lyon of the Mineral Policy Centre in Washington, water is minings most common
casualty (Safe Drinking Water Foundation, 2017). There is growing awareness of the
environmental legacy of mining activities that have been undertaken with little concern for
the environment.

The price South Africans have paid for attracting foreign investment through mining
corporations and the export of our minerals has been very high. Mining by its very nature
consumes, diverts and can seriously pollute water, air and soil resources. Negative impacts
can vary from the sedimentation caused by poorly built roads during exploration to the
disturbance of water during mine construction. Water pollution from mine waste rock and
tailings might need to be managed for decades, if not centuries, after a mines closure. In
South Africa in general, and Gauteng in particular, abandonment rather than responsible
closure seems to have been the norm, given that there are 6 000 ownerless, derelict and
abandoned mines nationwide and some 600 in Gauteng alone (Council for Geoscience,
2017).

18
Map 5: A country undermined 6 000 abandoned mines

Source: Council for Geoscience

These impacts depend on a variety of factors, such as the sensitivity of local terrain, the
composition of the minerals mined, the types of technology employed, the skill, knowledge
and environmental commitment of the company and, finally, the ability of the government to
monitor and enforce compliance with environmental regulations. One of the problems is that
mining has become more mechanised and therefore able to handle more rock and ore
material than ever before. In Johannesburg, the gold found in a conglomerate layer of
pebbles and sand has always been low grade a ton of rock is mined to obtain an ounce of
gold. This means that over a period of about 130 years an enormous amount of waste has
been generated. South Africa is responsible for about 86% of all the waste in Africa as a
whole (Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa, 2017).

Figure 1: Mineral to ore waste ratio of gold mining

Source: World Gold Council, 1996

19
Therefore, mine waste has multiplied enormously. As mine technologies are developed to
make it more profitable to mine low-grade ore, even more waste will be generated in the
future. Waste from the mining of processed ore is mineralised rock containing the gold.
Ultra-deep level mining involves the excavation of large quantities of waste rock (material not
containing the target mineral) to extract the desired mineral ore. The ore is then crushed into
finely ground tailings for processing with cyanide and separating processes to extract the final
product. Almost three tonnes of ore (waste) is needed to produce enough gold for one
typical wedding ring. According to AngloGold Ashanti (2004): As at 1997, South Africa
produced an estimated 468 million tons of mineral waste per annum (DWAF, 2001). Gold
mining waste was estimated to account for 221 million tons or 47% of all mineral waste
produced in South Africa, making it the largest, single source of waste and pollution (DWAF,
2001). There are more than 270 tailings dams in the Witwatersrand Basin, covering
approximately 400km2 in surface area (AngloGold Ashanti, 2004). These dams are mostly
unlined, and many are not vegetated, providing a source of extensive dust, as well as soil and
water (surface and groundwater) pollution... (Oelofse et al., 2007, p. 617). The dust and
water from the tailings waste contain chemicals, minerals and heavy metals that are
poisonous, such as arsenic, cyanide, mercury, lead and uranium.

Figure 2: Uses of gold

Source: World Gold Council, 1996

Over 42 million cubic metres of general waste is generated every year across the country,
with the largest proportion coming from Gauteng province (42%). In addition, more than 5
million cubic metres of hazardous waste is produced every year, mostly in Mpumalanga and
KwaZulu-Natal (due to the concentration of mining activities and fertiliser production in these
provinces). By far the biggest contributor to the solid waste stream is mining waste (77%),
followed by pulverised fuel ash (8%), agricultural waste (6%), urban waste (5%) and sewage
sludge (4%) (Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa, 2017).

20
Figure 3: Waste generated by source

Source: Theron, 2006

There are five main types of mining impacts on water quality:

i. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)/Acid Rock Drainage (ARD). ARD is a natural process
whereby sulphuric acid is produced when sulphides and pyrites in rocks are exposed
to air and water. AMD is essentially the same process, greatly magnified. When large
quantities of rock containing sulphide minerals are excavated from an open pit or
exposed in an underground mine, it reacts with water and oxygen to create sulphuric
acid. When the water reaches a certain level of acidity, a naturally occurring type of
bacteria called Thiobacillus ferrooxidans can become active, accelerating the
oxidation and acidification processes, leaching even more trace metals from the
wastes. The acid will leach from the rock if its source rock is exposed to air and water
and until the sulphides and pyrites are leached out a process that can last hundreds,
even thousands of years. Acid is carried off the mine site by rainwater or surface
drainage and deposited into nearby streams, rivers, lakes and groundwater. AMD
severely degrades water quality and can kill aquatic life and make water virtually
unusable (Safe Drinking Water Foundation, 2017);

To begin to address the very real problems posed by AMD, the government must:
prevent future loss of aquatic habitat to AMD;
record and clean up existing acid-generating mine sites;
improve public access to information on monitoring and enforcement of AMD
treatment and reclamation; and

21
 prevent future AMD by improving environmental risk assessment and adopting
a liability prevention approach to future AMD mine assessments.

ii. Heavy metal contamination and leaching. Heavy metal pollution is caused when
metals such as arsenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc contained in
excavated rock or exposed in an underground mine encounter water. Metals are
leached out and carried downstream as water washes over the rock surface. Although
metals can become mobile in neutral pH conditions, leaching is particularly
accelerated in the low pH conditions, such as those created by AMD (UIS Sediba
Laboratory, 2017);
iii. Processing chemicals pollution. This kind of pollution occurs when chemical agents
(such as cyanide or sulphuric acid used by mining companies to separate the target
mineral from the ore) spill, leak, or leach from the mine site into nearby water bodies.
These chemicals can be highly toxic to humans and wildlife (UIS Sediba Laboratory,
2017);
iv. Erosion and sedimentation. Mineral development disturbs soil and rock during
constructing and maintaining roads, open pits and waste impoundments. In the
absence of adequate prevention and control strategies, erosion of the exposed earth
can result in substantial amounts of sediment being carried into streams, rivers and
lakes. Excessive sediment can clog riverbeds and smother watershed vegetation,
wildlife habitats and aquatic organisms. Water Quantity Mining can deplete surface
and groundwater supplies. Groundwater withdrawals can also damage or destroy
streamside habitat many miles from the actual mine site (UIS Sediba Laboratory,
2017); and
v. Water and aquifers. Johannesburg is a major city in one of the driest countries on the
planet; we receive 50% less rainfall than the global average, yet the mining industry
has systematically destroyed crucial sources of underground water occurring in
aquifers and fissures. Underlying much of Gauteng, North-West and Limpopo
provinces is the so-called South African Transvaal Aquifer. This is a massive body of
water containing dolomitic formation (Buchanan, 2013). The presence of this water
formation poses a serious obstacle to both platinum and gold mining and has done so
since the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. Thus, we read in the
published papers and discussion documents of the Association of Mine Managers for
1931 1936 (Bok, 1938, pp. 171-173) that East Rand Property Mines (ERPM) pumped
enormous amounts of water to its mines on the East Rand: the average amount of
2,200,000 gallons (8,360,000 litres) per day pumped from all natural sources, roughly
1,800,000 gallons is the constant inflow, and the balance of 400,000 per day is the
measure of the drainage of the zones (Bok, 1938).

22
Map 6: Farms in Witwatersrand prior to the discovery of gold

Source: Stals, 1978, p.6

Roy MacNab, in his history of the Gold Fields of South Africa mining company, notes
regarding Venterspost mine in 1934: Water was the last big hurdle. They had found the
reefs, the gold was there but Nature, as if to protect it from the intruder, had put dolomite in
the way. Through the dolomitic caverns filled with water, the shafts would have to go to
reach the reef and the gold. (Macnab, 1987, p. 145). Water was a common problem for the
mines on the Rand and elsewhere, and millions of litres of water were pumped out per day
from various mines over the 130 years of mining on the Witwatersrand.

The fissures, aquifers and groundwater resources were all part of the natural formation of
water, filling up during the rainy season and reducing in the dry season. Impermeable granitic
dykes interspersed the gently sloping permeable conglomerates, shales and dolomitic layers.
Rainwater, being slightly acidic, carved out caverns that filled with water, while dykes
determined the flow. Mining disturbed the natural flow of ground water by perforating the
dykes and creating new flow opportunities, causing water to flow in different directions from
the natural flow. This impacted the springs/fountains, wells and boreholes used by the
population on the surface.

The different basins, East, Central and West, which comprised the areas in which mining was
concentrated, are all rapidly filling up with water because no one is pumping out the water
anymore. The natural flow and direction of the water has been disturbed by mining. Natural
aquifers have been cemented, i.e., filled with concrete to neutralise the danger they posed

23
to men working in shafts and tunnels underground. Dykes that naturally contained
groundwater flow and direction have been perforated by mine tunnels, allowing water to
flow freely in whatever direction the dykes were perforated, spewing out acid and heavy
metal-contaminated water wherever the ground water breaks through to the surface in
springs and streams. Land subsidence and sinkholes in the great dolomitic belts that underlay
most of the South African gold fields act as drains and sinks in the underground water,
leaving the current and future generations with a massive, dangerous and expensive
environmental challenge the surface has been undermined by the underground.

A lot of handwringing is done by the business, academic and political elite about the
environmental, ecological and hydrological (water) impact of mining in general and the
abandoned, derelict and ownerless mines in particular. Thus, the Centre for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) held a workshop on 16 and 17 March 2015 on the South African
Mining-Related Landscape Rehabilitation Status Quo: Identifying Research Work Required to
Close Knowledge Gaps (De Klerk & Claassen, 2015). Seminars, workshops, committees,
indabas (meetings), etc. around the destructive impact of abandoned, ownerless and derelict
mines have become an industry for consultants and academics, as has the generation of
guidelines, tools, models, plans and blueprints for resolving the matter. The above workshop
identified 72 guidelines, tools, models, plans, etc. that have been developed in recent years
to mitigate the problem. It has also inspired many academic papers, journals and books.

Map 7: Watershed, mine dumps and sewage works in relation to Soweto

Source: McCarthy et al., 2007, p.392

24
This brings us back to the question of basins. Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and the
Doornkop informal settlement in Snake Park all fall within the Central Basin (there being
three basins south of Main Reef Road: Eastern, Central and Western). This was the prognosis
of the environmental experts in 2010:

In the largest basin, the Central Basin, the water level has been rising at an average rate of 0.59
metres per day (m/d) since July 2009, varying seasonally between 0.3 and 0.9 m/d. By end-
November 2010, the mine water level reached an elevation of ~1155 metres above mean sea
level (mamsl), measured in Catlin Shaft at Simmer & Jack Mine. This is ~510 m below surface
(mbs) at this location. Linear extrapolation of the longer water level graph for the South-West
Vertical Shaft at East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) predicts that the rising water level will
reach the surface by March 2013. This will be updated as more monitoring data is collected. By
this time, however, it will have sterilised still exploitable gold reserves located at a depth of less
than 400 mbs. Of even greater consequence is that it will not only have flooded the shallower
underground tourist facilities at Gold Reef City, but also compromised the shallow groundwater
resource associated with the dolomitic strata located to the South-East of Johannesburg. (Water
Research Commission, 2010, p. vi)

This can lead to subsidence and sinkholes, which are already very common throughout the
West Rand, and poses a potential danger to residents of Soweto.

Map 8: Largely undermined dolomitic belts of South Africa

Source: Council for Geosciences

While laws and regulations exist and existed in the past, failure by previous and current
governments to enforce the laws and regulations has caused the problem to spiral out of
control. Not only did mining consume and waste huge quantities of water in the past, but

25
abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines continue to poison water in the present and will
continue to do so in the future. Decanting of toxic, radioactive acid water has started
occurring all over the Witwatersrand.

Photo 6: Acid water decanting in childrens park - Davidsonville

Without standards being enforced, communities are faced with decreased corporate
accountability and increased ecological liability. According to Young, we can pay now or pay
later, and history has shown us that, especially with mining, cleanup is always more
expensive than prevention. Good companies understand this concept, but the laws are not
there for the good guys (Safe Drinking Water Foundation, 2017). Deregulation, which is
favoured by the industry, would further reduce accountability, consistency and transparency
with respect to protecting clean water. Without an effective regulatory base, voluntary
measures have not and will not deliver reliable, consistent safeguards and environmental
performance improvements, as is shown by the number of ownerless, derelict and
abandoned mines in South Africa.

Given the fact that we are one of the most water-scarce countries in the world and for the
sake of current and future generations, we need to safeguard the purity and quantity of our
water against irresponsible mineral development. We need to ensure the best pollution
prevention strategies are employed in cases where the risks can be managed. We also need
to recognise that in some places mining should not be allowed to proceed because the
identified risks to other resources, such as water, are too great. In the right place and with
conscientious companies, new technologies and good planning many of the potential
impacts are avoidable. In fact, most mine pollution arises from negligence, not necessity.

4.1.4 Gold and its sisters: uranium, arsenic, lead, copper, iron, silver, chrome the
implications for community health

In 1886, gold was first discovered much farther West, in the area known as the Witwatersrand.
A long time elapsed before the importance of this discovery was fully realised, but over the
years the low-grade gold uranium deposits of the Witwatersrand System, which fill the
Witwatersrand Basin and cover thousands of square kilometres in the Transvaal and Orange

26
 Free State, have become the best-known mineral region in the world, both for size and wealth.
(Liebenberg, 1972, pp. 354-355)

Liebenbergs reference to the gold uranium deposits of the Witwatersrand System

indicates the close association between uranium and gold in South Africa. The implications of
which became apparent during the Second World War and the race to build the first atom
bomb, as well as in the post-war world characterised by the Cold War and the proliferation of
nuclear weapons. In this context, South Africa became a major supplier of very cheap
uranium. Uranium from South Africa had a competitive edge in that it was a by-product of
established gold mining production and required no new investment in the start-up of mines.
An abundance of uranium was also already present in the mountains of yellow waste
(tailings) all over the southern parts of the City of Johannesburg.

A.P. Cartwright (1962) traces the history of uranium in South Africa, referring to a paper
delivered by Dr A.W. Rogers, the director of the Geological Survey of South Africa, to the
Geological Society in 1915. Robert Kotze, the Government Mining Engineer, responded to the
paper as follows: In addition to the valuable scientific results obtained from such radioactive
elements, results that appear to be likely in the course of time to revolutionize chemistry as
well as the production of energy and indeed possibly the whole fabric of our present day
civilization, the application of these elements in medicine is of extreme interest and value.
(Cartwright, 1962, pp. 285-286).

The next time mention is made of the presence of uranium in South African gold mines was
in 1923, when R.A. Cooper, a metallurgist employed by the Corner House group, delivered a
paper to the Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society of South Africa, in which he reported
that among the heaviest concentrates on many mines of the group, extending from the
Boksburg Fault to the Central Rand, was uraninite (Cartwright, 1962, p. 287). By World War
2 it was clear that the Rand may be one of the biggest low-grade uranium fields in the
world (Cartwright, 1962, p. 289).

The presence of uranium and other heavy metals in the mine waste of Johannesburg is now
an accepted fact (Truswell, 1970, pp. 38-39). Less well known are the health impacts of
radiation on near mine communities. Radiation risks in Johannesburg in general and Soweto
find expression in:
i) unfenced and unsecured mine waste, particularly slimes/tailings accessible to the
unknowing public;
ii) informal settlers residing on abandoned mine sites;
iii) people stripping radioactive materials from abandoned mine sites and uranium
processing plants and selling this to scrap metal dealers;
iv) people using tailings sand as a building mix for concrete, cement and plaster to build
houses;

27
v) dust blown into the air from slimes/tailings dams and people inhaling or ingesting the
dust;
vi) runoff of mine water from tailings dams, or seepage into groundwater;
vii) plants absorb radioactive substances from the soil on which they grow. If fruits,
vegetables or other plants that have been grown in such soil are consumed as food,
they also get into the human body; and
viii) the breaking down of naturally occurring and mine deposited uranium into radon gas
getting into houses and buildings.

The health implications associated with such a large concentration of people living virtually
on top of the largest concentration of uranium on the planet are immense.

Photo 7: Geiger readings in Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and Doornkop

Figure 4: Decomposing uranium breaks down as radon gas

Source: Ismail, 2016

28
Radon gas is the second largest cause of lung cancer on the planet after smoking. According
to the WHO/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the worldwide average annual
radiation dose from exposure due to naturally occurring radiation sources, including radon, is
2.4 milliSievert (mSv). In any large population, about 65% would be expected to have annual
doses of between 1 and 3 mSv. About 25% of the population would be expected to have
annual doses of less than 1 mSv, and about 10% would be expected to have annual doses
greater than 3 mSv (IAEA, 2014).

Table 1: Radiation risks

Source: Before its News, 2013

Figure 5: Effects of radiation on the human body

Source: Apex, 2017

According to Liebenberg, gold and uranite appear to vary sympathetically, i.e., although they
occur in individual grains, they tend to occur together and to be distributed together [] This
manner of distribution is also true for other heavy minerals, such as zircon, chromite,

29
monazite, and ilmenite (now changed to Leucoxene), which tend to follow the gold and
uranite in their distribution. He notes the following correlations: [] a very close correlation
between gold and silver; a close correlation between gold, silver, and uranium; and a
significant correlation between uranium and zirconium, uranium and chromium []
(Liebenberg, 1972, pp. 372-374).

In the refining of gold, any matte or slag formed is crushed and sampled separately. In
addition to assaying materials for gold and silver, certain chemical components are
determined, particularly those which are important to subsequent furnace operations.
Among them are silica, iron, lead, alumina, calcium oxide, copper, zinc, sulphur and arsenic.
(Rubidge, 1972, pp. 178-255) Other by-products of gold are sulphur, copper, iron, lead,
platinum group metals and arsenic (Rubidge, 1972).

Before 1950, when the first uranium processing plants were set up, most of the uranite
found its way into tailings waste dumps, as did most of the arsenic and some of the lead,
copper, iron and silica. R.J. Adamson, while discussing the disposal of mine residues (waste),
states:

In the early days of gold mining in South Africa, the disposal of waste rock cyanide sand and
slime, surplus mine water and discarded solutions presented little if any difficulty, there being
more than sufficient unused land near the reduction works to accommodate these residues and
effluents. However, the outlook has since altered considerably owing to the establishment of
industrial zones in the neighbourhood of many mines and of agricultural development in other
mining districts. It is, therefore, necessary not only to secure adequate disposal areas to cover
the requirements of each mine for its full life but also ensure that suitable measures are taken
to prevent residues from encroaching beyond the limits set and also to prevent pollution by
dissolved solids in any run-off from the mine. While it is obviously advantageous to have the
sites as close as possible to the treatment plant to minimise pumping costs, it is obviously
necessary to move further afield either owing to lack of suitable terrain adjacent to the plant or
to the proximity of townships, industrial zones, water courses, roadways or electric power lines.
Also, preference should be extended to the utilisation of poor farming ground rather than highly
cultivated land. However, it is a sine qua non that sufficient surface area for dumps and dams
must be made available, and at economical rates, if the mine is to fulfil its function as a gold
producer. (Adamson, 1972, p. 152)

The current researchers found:

The calculated geographical location of townships near mine waste facilities such as
tailings dams, or alternatively the deliberate siting of tailings dams near townships;
The deliberate location of industrial zones near mine waste facilities;
The deliberate location of mine waste near rivers and water sources, and lately the
allocation of mining licences for catchment areas of important rivers;

30
 Extensive spillage from mining operations and mine waste facilities into streams,
wetlands and rivers; and
The allocation of mining licences for areas in which a 500m exclusion zone would be
impossible, such as near major roads, railway lines, housing, a school, electric power
lines, and petroleum and water pipelines. In fact, Meadowlands, Riverlea,
Davidsonville, Reigerpark, and Delmorpark are all townships where housing is located
without any regard for exclusion zones.

Clearly, the mining industry and government have scant regard for the dangers mentioned as
early as 1972 by Mr Adamson of the Chamber of Mines.

4.1.5 Proximity of human settlements to tailings in Soweto and mining consultation

The proximity of human settlements to tailings in Soweto is a recurring theme in this

research. The following is a pictorial summary showing this proximity. The tailings are
coloured in yellow. Tailings 1 is 140m, tailings 3 is also 140m, and tailings 5 is 240m away
from the residential areas, showing a complete disregard for the prescribed exclusion zone of
500m. A more detailed exposition of the proximity of human settlements to tailings is
provided below.

Map 9: Proximity of human settlements to tailings in Soweto

Source: NWU, Potchefstroom Campus, Centre for Environmental Management (CEM), 2014

31
Maps 10 and 11: Tailings measurements of exclusion zones - Diepkloof and Riverlea

Source: NWU, Potchefstroom Campus, CEM, 2014

32
4.1.6 Mining consultation, dust, security, radioactivity and the consequences of keeping
the public in the dark

It is common that mine tailings waste facilities (TWF) are unguarded, unfenced and not
properly signposted. When there are warning signs, these are often inadequate and
misleading. There is also no attempt to educate near-mine communities about the dangers
posed by derelict, abandoned and ownerless mines. The following graphs depict the
frequencies of how often the mines consult with the researched communities and an
indication of how important the community residents feel that this communication is.

Graph 2: How often do the mines consult the community?

Graph 3: How important is it for the mine to consult with communities?

The Soweto campus of the Johannesburg College of Education is nestled in between two
major tailings dams, both of which belonged to the once most productive and profitable
mine in the world, Crown Mines.

33
Photo 8: A typical dust bucket, Riverlea
The college took over some of the buildings and housing that
once belonged to Shaft 17, Crown Mines. Less than a decade
later, the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) condemned the
establishment of the college in an area that is too
radioactive. Both dumps contain large quantities of uranium
and other heavy metals. To live and learn there poses a
health risk.

At the entrance, just past the security gate, there is a dust

bucket on a pole. A dust bucket serves to accumulate dust
for the purposes of analysis to determine air quality near its
location. The researchers asked the security guard about the
dust bucket. They asked, Do you know what the bucket is
for? Yes! he answered confidently, These white people are very clever. They put that
bucket there, and it catches all the dust from these dumps so that no dust will reach us!

At Robinson Lake a few years ago, a TV crew asked the security guard if he knew what the
Radioactive sign meant. He responded on air: It means that I am in radio contact with my
control room!

Photo 9: Dust storm sweeping through Diepkloof (October 2015)

A mine worker was asked if he knew what the toxic

do not drink water sign meant. He responded that
it was not OK to drink the water using a cup. Levels
of illiteracy among mine workers remain high. Mine
signage, which is supposed to protect employees
and members of the community, often serves only
to confuse them, as illustrated above. Health and
safety education provided by corporations leave a

34
lot to be desired, and workers in mines work in radioactive environments without protective
gear and no education about radioactivity.

A former employee who worked for a subcontractor on the Mooifontein tailings disclosed in
an interview that they were not informed about the presence of uranium, arsenic, lead,
cadmium, copper, sulphur, mercury or cyanide in the mine waste they were working on and
the protective gear was wholly inadequate. Negative mine impacts do not end at the fence
because the wind blows mine dust through the fence and into neighbouring communities
and neighbouring farmers.

Photo 10: No entry signage

The sign above is found where mine seepage flows into the Booysens River. The Bench Marks
Foundation research team regularly tests water for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and acidity,
noting that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the upper limit for
safe drinkable water at 500 parts per million. At all the testing points, the team regularly
found the TDS levels to be much higher than this upper limit, and often higher than
2500ppm.

Photo 11: Metered reading for total dissolved solids

This measurement was taken where mine seepage flows into the Booysens River, showing
3470ppm.

35
Table 2: Analysis of water chemistry for Western, Central and Eastern mining basins

Source: Department of Water Affairs

The Bench Marks Foundation research team has on numerous occasions found children,
youth and adults, swimming in tailings evaporation ponds, playing on tailings, quad-biking on
tailings, stripping hijacked cars at abandoned tailings, or worshipping on or near tailings.
Tailings facilities, even though they contain uranium and other heavy metals, are generally
unmaintained, unsecured, unfenced and not signposted. The mining best practice rule of
exclusion zones of 500m is generally ignored. This rule is insisted on by environmentalists,
health practitioners and mining experts, with some recommending a distance of 2 000
meters as acceptable (Gauteng Province Agricultural and Rural Development Department,
2012, p. 30).

Photo 12: Teenagers playing on the Diepkloof tailings dam

36
Photo 13: Kids swimming in the Doornkop tailings evaporation pond

Photo 14: Quad biking and scrambling on a radioactive tailings dam

The above photographs indicate the various recreational activities that take place on and
around the tailings. At a meeting with managers in the scrap metal industry on 14 September
2011 at the Killarney Club in Houghton, the NNR defined the responsibilities of licence
holders of nuclear waste facilities:

As a principle, the South African Regulatory Framework requires that the primary responsibility
for ensuring radiological protection of the health and safety of the workers, members of the
public as well protection of the environment rests entirely with the holders [of] or applicants for
a nuclear authorisation and extends in an unbroken chain through management to the workers
of that facility. (NNR, 2011, p. 12)

The NNR, those who abandoned radioactive dumps, and local governments and property
developers, therefore, seem to be currently (and historically) remiss for locating low-cost
housing near radioactive mine-waste facilities. However, it turns out that the licence or
certificate of registration applies only to mine waste on site and not waste off-site. It

37
appears that the Department of Energy and the DMR now recognise that the concept of
ownerless abandoned mine tailings is not adequately covered by legislation, and in this
regard, legislation is in the process of being passed. The biggest contributor to the solid waste
stream in South Africa is mining waste (77%), followed by pulverised fuel ash (8%),
agricultural waste (6%), urban waste (5%) and sewage sludge (4%) (Institute of Waste
Management Southern Africa, 2017). As has been seen in the past, good legislation that is
not applied through effective control and regulation is not worth the paper it is printed on.
According to the same presentation, the radioactive materials, processes and sites monitored
by the NNR include:

Material (irrespective of whether processed or not)

that contains no significant amounts of radionuclides other than naturally occurring
radionuclides; and
is designated by national law or by a regulatory body as being subject to regulatory control
because of its radioactivity.

Note:
Regulatory control as a practice includes the option of exemption.
Regulatory control may also mean control of an existing exposure situation.

While NNR regulatory activities include:

Prospecting, mining and processing of uranium, thorium, gold, copper, heavy minerals,
phosphate rock and fertilisers production;
Clearance of sites contaminated with Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM)
residue;
Recycling of scrap material (i.e., ferrous and nonferrous metals, plastic, stainless steel, etc.)
that is contaminated with NORM residues;
Conducting tests in laboratories on small quantities of NORM samples for verification of
proposed and existing actions, (including samples from prospecting activities).
Some service providers authorised to clean-up (sic) identified sites contaminated with
NORM residue.

To this end the NNR is responsible for the following authorisations:

Mining and mineral processing facilities;
Scrap processors;
Scrap smelters;
Fertiliser manufacturing;
Service providers; and
Small users (NNR, 2011).

In 2005 the DMR undertook that:

Government shall within five years following approval of this policy, establish a Radioactive
Waste Management Fund (RWMF) by statute. The funds paid into the RWMF shall not be

38
 subject to tax. In keeping with the polluter pays principle, the contributions to the fund will be
from the generators of radioactive waste. The contributions shall be managed equitably without
cross-subsidisation and amongst others, be based on classification of the waste as well as the
volumes. The purpose of the fund shall be to ensure that there are sufficient provisions for the
long-term management options for the various waste forms. (Department of Minerals and
Energy, 2005, p. 22)

In the National Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute Act, 53 of 2008, mention is made in
Section 21 of an RWFM in terms of which an Act must be promulgated. Funds of Institute 21:
The funds of the Institute consist of:
money received from waste generators on a cost recovery basis for services rendered
in terms of this Act;
money appropriated by Parliament; and
money transferred to the Institute from the RWMF that must be established by an Act
of Parliament.

It is unclear whether this fund ever came into existence through a motion adopted by an Act
of Parliament.

4.1.7 Waiting to inhale asbestos fibres, radioactive dust and arsenic

Black township housing development has historically comprised the erection of low-cost
housing. The white minority was not comfortable with the black majority becoming
urbanised during colonialism and apartheid. This meant that township or location
development always occurred on the least economically viable, most compromised land and
that only the cheapest building materials were used. The cheapest building materials
included mine tailings for mixing cement and asbestos sheet roofing. It was observed during
the course of this research that most of the houses in Riverlea, and many in Meadowlands
and Diepkloof, have asbestos roofing. Only the Doornkop informal settlement in Snake Park
does not have an abundance of asbestos.

It was also found that respiratory problems such as coughing, asthma, sinusitis and hay fever
cumulatively represent the biggest health challenge in the households surveyed. This could
be attributable to mine dust containing arsenic, silica and uranium. It could also be the
asbestos roofing or the fact that many houses are simply constructed in flood plains and
swamps, meaning that they are constantly damp and freezing in winter. Thus, in Riverlea
Extension (also referred to as Zombie) many residents live on oxygen machines, and in
houses that are damp because of the nearby Booysens Spruit, which in the rainy season
floods right up and across Sand Street to peoples front doors. The area is also dusty because
of the windblown tailings dust from Mooifontein tailings. The asbestos roofs of their houses
could also be part of the problem.

39
Graph 4: Asbestos roofing on surveyed Soweto households

DRD/ERGO claims that the residents burn coal and paraffin, but all the houses in Riverlea
have had electricity since 1984 and the current researchers found the negligible use of
paraffin or coal in Riverlea.

Graph 5: Electricity use in surveyed Soweto households

The above graph shows the predominance of electricity use over coal and paraffin in Soweto
households. On 11 October 2000, some five years before the total ban on asbestos, the Land
and Environmental Affairs Select Committee of Parliament, and the National Council of
Provinces hosted a Briefing by the Asbestos User Group and Environmental Quality and
Protections (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism), at which Ms R A Ndzanga

40
(ANC Gauteng) mentioned that during a visit to Botswana she was told that all houses roofed
with asbestos products had to be replaced, but all the houses in Soweto still had their
asbestos roofs. Mr Gibson, on behalf of the Asbestos User Group, then added that:

The Summit did recommend a ban be put on all asbestos and asbestos-based products except
white asbestos, and this ban was immediately implemented. This ban becomes problematic
however when low-density applications of asbestos (i.e., those collected and reused from
dumps) are removed because the act of removal releases asbestos dust which causes more
harm than the product itself. He stipulated that high-density applications of asbestos, which are
used in townships [] cause no risk to occupants. (NCOP User Group and Environmental Quality
and Protections, 2000, p. 1)

This begs the question of why it was not widely used to roof houses in white suburbs during
apartheid. Mr Gibson made the following startling admission, saying: Everite knew the risks
associated with asbestos in the mid-1960s but did not develop a program dealing with
education, dust control, health surveillance and research/development until the mid-1970s.
(NCOP User Group and Environmental Quality and Protections, 2000, p. 2) There is a global
agreement that no asbestos, regardless of colour, is good asbestos. The only countries that,
until recently, tried to sell the idea that white asbestos was better than blue asbestos were
Zimbabwe, Canada and South Africa.

Dangers in the dust: Inside the global asbestos trade

Dr Vincent Cogliano, of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer says: My own
personal view is that these risks are extremely high. They are as high as just about any known
carcinogen that we have seen, except, perhaps, for tobacco smoke. Any exposure is going to
prolong the asbestos epidemic - continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase
the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come, he said."

At Janice's hospital in Montreal, Dr Dick Menzies has signed a letter telling the government there
is an overwhelming scientific consensus that white asbestos use must end. He is just one of
many prominent physicians, academics and others who have besieged the federal and provincial
governments with letters of protest.

The WHO says 125 million people encounter white asbestos in the workplace, and the
International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 100,000 workers die each year from all
asbestos-related diseases. (Morris, 2010)

The authorities and industry were, therefore, aware of the risks of asbestos in the 1960s but
continued using asbestos extensively in townships. Riverlea came into existence in 1964, and
Riverlea extension, surveyed in this report, still has 97% asbestos roofs in 2017, Diepkloof has
66.3%, and Meadowlands 53.3%, thirteen years after the use of asbestos was totally banned
in 2005. Could this be ascribed to an economic system that values life by class and race, and

41
the need for cheap labour and the maximising of profits? Surely, residents of these
communities have room for litigation against the asbestos industry and authorities for failing
their Constitutional right to a healthy and safe environment?

In 1987 the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU) wrote: In South
Africa and other countries workers are still being exposed to asbestos at levels which have
been scientifically demonstrated to be unsafe. The current position in the scientific
community and in governments like that of the United Kingdom (UK) is that there is no safe
threshold for asbestos exposure where lung cancer excess is preventable. (Aron & Myers,
1987, p. 5)

Figure 6: The workplace hazards of dust

Source: Hazards Magazine, 2011

42
The problem in South Africa is that, even after banning asbestos in 2005, there are still
authors who argue that the asbestos exposure in Soweto is not so bad. The airborne
asbestos fibre concentration in and around Soweto is low (the methodology included 61
houses that were chosen by convenience sampling) (Philips et al., 2007, p. 3). Or, as the
1987 SALDRU paper so accurately puts it, in support of the notion that there is no safe level
of asbestos exposure:

Many people worked at high exposures for short periods only, or at low exposures for long
periods. Their doses of asbestos have been close to, and generally lower than, those doses
permitted by current standards regulating exposure to asbestos in the advanced countries.
Despite this low level of exposure which is assumed by the industry to be safe, these people
have already been shown to have developed excess asbestos related disease after sufficient
time had elapsed for the effect of the latency period had come into operation. (Aron & Myers,
1987, p. 9)

The same principles apply to residents in dwellings with asbestos roofs. Accepting the
principle that no exposure to asbestos is acceptable, Philips et al. (2007) would have been
better advised to investigate the health profiles of the residents occupying the houses in and
around areas where the asbestos fibres were low.

Many scientists argue that there is no such a thing as safe radiation exposure. The other
unfortunate fate to befall the African majority, which also happens to make up the bulk of
the labour force in Gauteng and the Witwatersrand, is that they had no say in the location of
their housing and had, due to colonialism and apartheid, lived in racially segregated locations
and townships. These were, as in the case of Soweto, often located near toxic, radioactive
mine waste and dumps. All the arguments made about asbestos above might be made in
relation to uranium and uranium-containing mine dumps. So, the challenge for any
household survey is to determine which of the many possible variables are responsible for
the poor health status of residents.

Coming to the question of radioactive mine waste, David Fig asks: How should the
government respond when most of the old gold mining companies have left or gone out of
business without dealing with their pollution legacy? (Fig, 2011, p. 1) It is an interesting
question, given that the regulatory guide Interim Guidance on the Management of NORM
Tailings and Waste Rock developed by the NNR does not once mention the words exclusion
zones or safety zones. Nowhere in the NNR document does it make any recommendations
or suggestions about the location of tailings or rock waste facilities in relation to housing,
infrastructure, schools, social facilities, etc. The document does refer to the fact that the
controls should include: monitoring, surveillance, remedial work (if necessary), water
diversion and treatment, maintenance of fences, controlling land use and erecting sign
postings and warnings (NNR, 2015, p. 11). However, this research team has yet to find a

43
single tailings waste facility that is secured, fenced off, properly signposted or even
monitored along the mine waste belt that rings Soweto to the West, North and East.

Elna Fourie notes that the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) defines
the justification of a practice by stating that no practice involving exposures to radiation
should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefit to the exposed individuals or to
society to offset the radiation detriment it causes (Fourie, 2009, p. 3). It is not clear what
benefit the residents of Soweto derive from the radioactive mine dumps on their doorstep.

The gold ores of the Witwatersrand contain appreciable concentrations of uranium and its
radioactivity progeny. Mining has resulted in the dispersal of radioactive progeny. Mining has
resulted in the dispersal of radioactive material into the environment via windblown dust,
waterborne sediment and the sorption a precipitation of radioactivity from water into sediment
bodies. (Department of Minerals and Energy, 2008)

As noted above, uranium breaks down into radon gas. In the United States (US), radon gas is
the second highest cause of lung cancer. In America and Europe people regularly test their
houses for radon exposure, but this is not the case in South Africa. Long-term exposure to
radon can lead to lung cancer, which is the only cancer proven to be associated with inhaling
radon, according to a health specialist at the Cancer Association of South Africa, Professor
Michael Herbst (Ismael, 2016).

Radon was classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on
Cancer in 1988 (IARC, 1988) after several studies found that miners occupationally exposed
to radon, usually at high concentrations, demonstrated a notably increased risk of lung
cancer. According to Herbst, recent research had focused on specifying the effect of
residential radon on lung cancer risk. In these studies, scientists measured radon levels in the
homes of people who had lung cancer and compared them to the levels of radon in the
homes of people who had not developed lung cancer. Despite the location of thousands of
low-cost township and location houses near and sometimes on mine waste, radon is never
measured in these houses (Ismael, 2016).

5. HISTORY OF SOWETO THE FLIPSIDE OF THE HISTORY OF

JOHANNESBURG

This section of the history of Soweto includes the interface of geology, health, economics,
politics and mining in the development of a township (mining and the location of townships
the geopolitics of colonialism and apartheid). The following comment was made by Ambrose
Pratt, an Australian journalist, after visiting Johannesburg in 1910:

44
 There are classes in South Africa, but amongst the whites at least there are no masses. The
caste system which has replaced the older institution of slavery has effectually compelled even
the poorest of wage earning whites to join forces with the plutocrats in a tacit conspiracy of
cooperation to maintain their pride of race and to prevent the social elevation and political
emancipation of the blacks. [...] Millionaires and mechanics view the Negro through cognate
sets of spectacles. The millionaire wants plenty of unskilled cheap labour. The mechanic wants a
monopoly of the skilled labour market and, being lazy, he also wants cheap black industrial
valets to perform the rougher portions of his work.

5.1 Early discovery of gold in South Africa and on the Rand

Among members of the public, there is the mistaken view that mining in South Africa
commenced with the discovery of diamonds at what became Kimberley in 1869 and gold on
the Rand in 1886. Contrary to this belief, the country is replete with archaeological evidence
that mining occurred here as far back as 1800 years ago. Apart from numerous mines, some
of which were being successfully reworked, ruins of stone buildings have been found in
several hundred distinct places. Few of these have been explored systematically, but
investigations in 1905, though confined to a small number of sites, determined at least the
main questions of date and origin (Pike, 2017).

The fanciful theories of popular writers, who had ascribed these ruined Iron Age cities to
remote antiquity, and had even been so audacious as to identify their founders with the
subjects of King Solomon or of his contemporary, the queen of Sheba, were seen to be
untenable. The book by J.T. Bent, Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1892), was by then
interesting only for its illustrations; his theories regarding King Solomon were obsolete.
Positive archaeological evidence demonstrated that the Great Zimbabwe, the most famous
and the most imposing of the misnamed Ruined Cities, was not built before medieval times
(Pike, 2017).

The Iron Age archaeological sites of Mapungubwe, K2, Leokwe and the Schroda site in the
Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa, and the Mmamagwe site in Botswana are among
the best-studied Iron Age sites in southern Africa. They represent the Zhizo, K2 and
Mapungubwe Iron Age cultures that existed in this region roughly between 600 and 1300 AD.
Small Iron Age sites post-dating this period have also been recorded in the area, including
stonewalled sites on hilltops and Khami-type ruins (Pike, 2017). Mapungubwe is renowned
for its golden rhino and is believed to be the precursor of Great Zimbabwe, the most
remarkable Iron Age site in southern Africa. The Mapungubwe landscape was proclaimed a
World Heritage Site in July 2003. Other important archaeological sites are at Toutswe Mogala
and Mmamagwe in Botswana. Several sites are also situated on Sentinel Ranch and Mapela
Hill in Zimbabwe.

45
At several archaeological sites, such as Mapungubwe and Thulamela in the Limpopo Valley,
there is evidence of sophisticated political and material cultures, based partly on contact with
the East African trading economy. These cultures, which were part of a broader African
civilisation, predate European encroachment by several centuries. Settlement patterns varied
from the dispersed homesteads of the fertile coastal regions in the East to the concentrated
towns of the desert fringes in the west. The farmers did not, however, extend their
settlement into the western desert or the winter rainfall region in the south-west. These
regions remained the preserve of the Khoisan until Europeans put down roots at the Cape of
Good Hope. Currently, aided by modern science in uncovering the continents history, which
forms part of the African Renaissance, South Africa is gaining a greater understanding of its
rich pre-colonial past (Pike, 2017).

Even before the 1886 discovery of gold on the farm Langlaagte, attributed to George
Harrison and George Walker, there had been extensive prospecting and panning for gold
around the Witwatersrand. In fact, the history of mining by European colonists and settlers
can be traced back to 1853 (Gray, 1937, p. 15). However, the pre-colonial residents who
resided on Melville Koppie (hill) and those who lived in the hills to the South of Alberton,
where Meyersdal is located, mined and smelted iron possibly for several centuries prior to
1886.

Photo 15: Ruins of Iron Age Settlement South-East of Alberton

The area indicated above received no protection from the South African Heritage Association
when property developers decided to create a gated golf estate. In 2004 this area was
summarily bulldozed and turned into a gated complex for the rich with the approval of the
ruling party and government of South Africa, with the full complicity of the South African
Heritage Association. Like black lives, black history does not count for much in South Africa
both are trumped by profits.

46
5.2 The gradual evolution of Soweto, a matter of civilisation, hygiene,
cleanliness, cheap labour and profits

The history of Soweto is closely associated with the demands of the South African economy
for cheap labour and the racial division of labour, which evolved because of the evolution of
colonialism and apartheid. The white population of South Africa practised slavery from 1652
to 1834 (Watson, 1990) and then, as the Voortrekkers (the people who trekked from the
Cape to the North of the country) moved into the interior, they practised forms of servitude
approximating slavery. The labour needs of mining towns such as Johannesburg meant a
dependence on cheap black labour.

The Mining Industry in the Transvaal is built upon the basis of cheap native labour for unskilled
work. If European workmen on the mines refuse to support that policy, they will be cutting their
own throats, because good wages to European workers on the Witwatersrand for skilled
supervision work, and reasonable wages for semi-skilled work at which a man can learn to
become a skilled miner, have been possible only because the rough unskilled work has been
done by imported indentured native labour and local black labour. (Transvaal Chamber of
Mines, 1927, p. 58)

The racial division of labour would lead to the racial segregation of living spaces and
eventually the evolution of Soweto. Thus, even before the discovery of gold in Johannesburg
in 1886, the municipal ordinances of the town of Potchefstroom in 1884 determined that the
town council was obliged to build a location for the black population (Shorten, 1966). The
western area (West Rand) of what was to become Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand, fell
under the magisterial district of Potchefstroom, while the area that would become the East
Rand fell under the Heidelberg District (Gray, 1937).

In October 1887, less than a year after the discovery of payable gold, mine bosses
complained about the shortage of black labourers, who earned eight shillings per week on
the Rand. This complaint was repeated endlessly in one report after the other. The various
means through which labour was attracted to the Rand gold mines, where they were housed
in compounds in often primitive conditions (Shorten, 1966), included hut tax, poll tax and
labour tax. One government report in 1903 openly said that the taxes were specially designed
to force Natives to work in the towns and on the mines (Callinicos, 1980, p. 28). Later the
Pass Laws and the 1913 Land Act added to the pressure.

Before 1897, the responsibility for the control of natives in the streets was the
responsibility of the Sanitary Committee, the precursor of todays City Council. Initially, no
provision was made to accommodate natives. In 1897 the wages of African mine workers
fell dramatically, forcing many to move into the ghetto areas of Johannesburg. A year later
the Anglo Boer War broke out, causing many African workers to leave the Rand (Van Onselen,
1976, pp. 86-87), and few returned after the occupation of Transvaal by the British army. The

47
wages of African workers fell even further, leading to a shortage of unskilled labour on the
mines. Indentured Chinese labour was imported briefly to meet the demand for labour
(Walker & Weinbren, 1961, pp. 16-17).

After 1897, the local government was empowered to make provision for the accommodation
of black South Africans. To finance the housing for the native population, blacks were
required to pay head or hut tax. However, the collection of the taxes was inefficient, with the
consequence that the housing development lagged. In the early town planning for
Johannesburg, plots were set aside for so-called Coolies and Arabs to the West of the
central business district. Blacks soon settled in between the coloured and Indian
Communities. Soon the area set aside was deemed unhygienic. Overpopulation, slum
conditions and disease soon became commonplace in the area, which is now known as
Newtown. The population of the area was composed of all races but was predominantly
black African (Shorten, 1966, p. 755).

Map 12: Johannesburg 'Kaffir and Coolie locations (1898)

Source: Kennedy, 1984, p.34

Because of the 2nd Anglo-Boer War, many blacks left the Witwatersrand, and the ensuing
shortage of labour led to the import of indentured Chinese labour in the boom that followed
the war (Special Committee, 1906, pp. 11-12). The Chinese workers were viewed with great
suspicion by local farmers and traders and were accommodated in concentration camp-like
conditions (Special Committee, 1906, pp. 11-12). The Special Commission appointed to
inquire into the control of Chinese indentured labour in the Witwatersrand district found
that:

48
 the main factors in the matter of control of labourers under the Labour Importation Ordinance
of 1904, the Labour Importation Amendment Ordinance, 1905 and the Regulations issued
thereunder:- (1) The provision, according to law, that labourers cannot be transported from one
importer to the other without the consent of the Lieutenant-Governor being first had and
obtained; (2) the provision that every labourer should carry on his person the document known
as the Identification Passport (metal ticket); (3) the provision that labourers should reside on
the mine premises on which they are employed, and that they should not be allowed to trade,
or acquire, lease or hold land; (4) the provision that the labourers must be provided with
permits to be issued by the importer or his representative in case they are absent from the said
mine premises; (5) policing and (6) mine supervision and control. (Special Committee, 1906, p.
4)

These restrictive controls on foreign mine labour would eventually be generalised to turn
even native South Africans into foreigners in their own land as the system evolved towards
apartheid. Africans were needed in the towns and cities for their labour, but they were not
wanted as co-inhabitants, given the racial attitudes of the white European populations of
these towns and cities.

The Chamber of Mines was formed for the purpose of controlling and setting African labour
wages, and to end the competitive wage environment by creating a monopolistic employer
organisation that would set wages and stop the free movement of labour between different
mining companies based on wages and competition for cheap labour.

One of the main problems that necessitated an organization like the Chamber of Mines was the
supply of native labour to the mines. This problem became one of the initial aims of the
organisationThe periodic shortages every year introduced strong competition between
companies resulting in increased costs, and in 1898 the average wage spiralled to 15/- [fifteen
shillings fifteen Rand in todays currency] per week. Managers now saw the need for
cooperation in native labour conditions. (Malan, 1970, p. 27)

The Chamber set up a Native Labour Department in 1892, which in turn gave rise to the
Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA). Apart from legislation and taxes, alcohol
was a powerful tool in the recruitment and retainment strategies of the WNLA, as F. Perry, a
former chairman, noted about Mozambican mine workers in 1906 (quoted in Van Onselen):

They brew themselves many kinds of native spirits, and the potent liquors of European
manufacture threw open to them new vistas of enjoyment. A few of them had found their way
to the diamond fields. To the Witwatersrand goldfields, which were nearer to them they came
in great numbers, especially after the construction of the Delagoa Bay Railway. Their earnings
were not spent on cattle but on whisky and gin. Thus, a period of work, instead of supplying
them with the means of settling down, only gave them a period of drink and idleness.
Afterwards, they had to return to work to earn the coin wherewith to gratify their cultivated

49
 taste. In this way, they have become nearer than any other South African races to supplying the
material of an industrial, as distinguished from an agricultural population. (Van Onselen, 1976,
p. 95)

Perry seems to have suggested that a typical industrial working class is one that is addicted to
alcohol. In 1893 the Sanitary Superintendent of Johannesburg expressed his alarm about the
increasing numbers of patients with sexually transmitted diseases, citing several bad cases
of syphilis which, owing to the absence of any place to which they could be sent, could not be
isolated or treated. Kennedy writes: In a hard drinking town like Johannesburg, with its
scores of bars and hotels, prostitution was naturally rife; probably, too, the compounds of
conscripted labourers soon constituted a large reservoir of untreated syphilis [] In any
event, blacks manifested the disease in severe and acute ways to the dismay of mine doctors
and municipal officials. (Kennedy, 1984, p. 42)

African mine workers at the time had no access to public hospitals and were treated in
buildings in the compounds. There were 62 such compound medical facilities on the Rand.
There were no beds or nurses. The patients slept on the floor on strips of felt or hessian sacks
and were attended to by male orderlies. The hospital superintendent as often as not was an
ex-non-commissioned officer of the British Army. (Cartwright, 1962, p. 173) Black
mineworkers perished in their thousands from pneumonia because they were not provided
with protective clothing and often went underground half naked (Callinicos, 1987, p. 78).
Emerging from the hot and stuffy, dusty underground shafts into the cold, dry winter air of
the Rand made them even more prone to lung and respiratory diseases, including
tuberculosis (TB) and miners phthisis.

Jock McCulloch writes: In the last decade of the nineteenth-century pneumatic drills were
introduced into South Africas gold mines. Power drills were highly efficient and increased the
productivity of labour. They also generated clouds of dust, and with dust came silicosis.
Drilling was a white job, and as a result, many Europeans died. Rock drillers had an average
working life of only seven years and a life expectancy of barely 30. (McCulloch, 2002, p. 117)

The complete disregard for black lives at the time was also reflected in how Africans were
treated in death. L.E. Neame sketches out the circumstances surrounding the burial of black
people: Natives and coloured people were buried anywhere. The Star newspaper, in a
leading article on December 14, 1888, said:

If close upon one thousand Europeans, Americans and Australians have been laid beneath the
veld at Braamfontein, how many dark-skinned corpses must have been consigned their last
resting places in and around Johannesburg? It is a lamentable fact that nobody seems to know
when or how these burials have taken place. Ask any of the public officials whose duty one
would suppose it to be to have full knowledge of these circumstances, and he will tell you, Oh,

50
 somewhere beyond the claims on the South side of the town; but as to the exact spot, or what
name, he knows nothing. (Neame, 1958, p. 45)

Segregated space was eventually afforded to Africans in the already segregated cemetery of
Braamfontein. The racial hierarchy was further entrenched through petty by-laws prohibiting
Africans from walking on the pavements, and the introduction of the pass system,

[] forcing a Native to carry a pass giving his name, trade, the name of employer, and the
latters address, was inaugurated in 1890. The price of each pass was two shillings per month,
and the object of the system at first was two-fold: (1) the money raised each month was to be
utilized for the Johannesburg Central Hospital [] (2) A check could be kept on the many
Natives coming to the town, and their movements controlled. A Native found without a pass
could be fined and deported. [] The pass system with its fingerprint registration, and the
compound system are likely to be a part of Johannesburgs life as long as gold mining is done
and Native labour is required. (Leyds, 1964, pp. 290-291)

Map 13: Segregated cemetery of Braamfontein

Source: Gevisser, 2014

Local government was re-established in Johannesburg in 1902 and tasked with the
administration of native housing. However, government policy was vague, and the councils
responsibilities in this regard were poorly defined. At the time, the black African population
was small and a non-permanent feature of the urban environment in Johannesburg. The
council had a degree of control over the health and welfare of natives (Shorten, 1966, p.
755). The 1904 outbreak of the plague or typhoid fever killed off nearly 2 000 people in
Johannesburg. The Medical Officer of Health reported that this disease, too, bred more

51
easily where there was pollution of soil and air by the present bucket system, extensive soil
pollution by slops and by natives promiscuously defecating in outlying districts. (Callinicos,
1987, p. 79) The outbreak of typhoid was used to justify the cordoning off of the Malay and
Kaffir locations and the relocation of their populations to Kliptown (Pimville). Both locations
were burnt to the ground. In part, the housing challenge presented by black mine workers
was overcome by developing a

range of measures to keep unwilling recruits in bondage and to extract most work for the least
pay, food and accommodation. The compound system and all its accompanying institutions of
mine police, physical violence and social control, became crucial. In collaboration with the
State, a sophisticated pass system was developed to prevent and detect desertion. Laws such
as the Masters and Servants Act were effectively used to suppress work stoppages and other
forms of worker resistance. On many mines, workers were systematically cheated of their
wages and forced to stay longer than the periods for which they had contracted. (Moroney,
1978, p. 32)

These measures were directly related to the policies applied to Chinese indentured labour. In
the early years of Johannesburgs history, African mine workers died in their thousands from
pneumonia (Callinicos, 1987, p. 78). No one in Johannesburg was aware of the presence of
uranium in the gold mines at the time, and most commentaries attributed the deaths to
temperature differences in the underground workings and the surface when workers
changed shifts, or to the tropical origins of central and East African migrants, or to the scanty
clothing these workers wore while at work during this time (Cartwright, 1968). This is despite
the fact that the US Naval Medical Research Institute had identified pneumonia as a possible
symptom of radiation exposure.

The policy for the management of black residents and workers in urban areas took shape at
this time with Lord Alfred Milner as High Commissioner presiding over South Africa until the
establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In 1905 Howard Pim, one of Milners key
advisors on native administration and urban planning, summarised the thinking of the time
that would give rise to the racially informed urban division of space in colonial and apartheid
cities:

Let us assume [] that the white man does turn the native out of one or more of his reserves
[] the native must live somewhere. We will suppose that he is moved into locations attached
to the large industrial centres a theory of native management which receives much support.
[] In the location he is more closely huddled together than he would be in his own country and
finds [] himself in surroundings in which his native customs have no place, and he is compelled
to purchase from the white man food which in his own country he raised for himself. What the
white man gains, therefore, is little more than the labour required for the food which under
natural conditions the native raised for himself. For a time, the location consists of able-bodied
people, but they grow older, they become ill, they become disabled who is to support them?
They commit offences who is to control them? The reserve is a sanatorium where they can

52
 recruit; if they are disabled, they remain there. Their own tribal system keeps them under
discipline, and if they become criminals there is not the slightest difficulty in bringing them to
justice [] (Marks & Trapido, 1979, pp. 71 - 72)

The objective spelt out here was to keep the native population out of the white cities as far
as possible, except as labour, and to externalise the cost of moving native labour to rural
reserves or the later homeland/Bantustans. A part of this process would be to make the
cities as inhospitable as possible by denying the black population access to land/property,
decent housing, a living wage or economic opportunities other than labour. Lord Milner, in
1903, summed up the unfolding policy as follows:

Our welfare depends upon increasing the quantity of our white population, but not at the
expense of its quality. We do not want a white proletariat in this country. The position of the
whites among the more numerous black population requires that even their lowest ranks
should be able to maintain a standard of living far above that of the poorest section of the
population of a purely white country. [] However, you look at the matter, you always come
back to the same root principle the urgency of that development which alone can make this a
white mans country [] one in which a largely increased white population can live in decency
and comfort. That development requires capital, but it also requires a large amount of rough
labour. And that labour cannot to any extent, be white [] (Marks & Trapido, 1979, p. 66)

Among other things, a life of decency and comfort no doubt meant that the white
population of Johannesburg could not live downwind of the mine slimes/tailings, or
downstream of the water pollution emanating from the mines, or the sewage from the city;
hence the black townships of Johannesburg were all located topographically lower than the
white city and its lush suburbs, downwind from the mine tailings and the ensuing toxic dust
and downstream from the mine-polluted rivers flowing off the Rand.

In Johannesburg, the evolving policy received a push with the outbreak of the plague in 1903,
and in the ensuing panic, it was argued that preventative measures against the plague would
require the eradication of rats from the city, which would have been impossible without
erasing the slum areas. Consequently, a zinc fence was erected around Newtown and the
area was burnt to the ground. Most of the Newtown residents were relocated to temporary
housing in Klipspruit (Pimville), where the Johannesburg City Council erected wood and zinc
shacks, thus creating the conditions for a new slum (Kennedy, 1984).

J. Howard Pim, the deputy mayor of Johannesburg in 1905 epitomised white attitudes
towards the black population at the time. He declared: The simple truth is that there is going
on, side by side in the negro people, a minimum progress with a maximum regress; or, in
other words, an awakening in the minority of them, with an increasing degradation of the
majority [] the best of the Whites and the best of the Negroes seldom live in anything like
close proximity. Pim then claimed that it was the duty and responsibility of the white man to

53
discipline and teach the savage [] as a child is taught the virtues of civilized existence
through technical education, forced labour, slavery [] it seems to me the only hope
(Kennedy, 1984). Thus, Pim justified the forced removal and relocation of blacks on the
grounds that they were a bad influence on poor whites, and that he was repelled by the
prospect of racial mixing and the consequent moral degradation.

The overcrowded and underserviced, poverty-stricken conditions the African workers found
themselves in in Johannesburg left them weak and vulnerable to disease. When the great flu
epidemic from Europe hit South Africa in 1918, thousands of people, especially black
working-class South Africans perished. Whites in the middle-class suburbs of Johannesburg
panicked and responded, demanding the removal of slums from the city and further racial
segregation (Callinicos, 1987, pp. 79-80). Instead of dealing with overcrowding in the city,
overcrowding was shifted to new high density (overcrowded) townships, which would later
amalgamate into Soweto.

From 1910 to 1920, the black population of Soweto increased threefold, from the 96 000
(approximately 92 000 men and 4 000 women) of 1910. Slum conditions rapidly spread, with
the flu epidemic of 1918 adding further stimulus to segregationist policies and the
establishment of the Western Bantu Township between 1918 and 1921 with the erection of
300 houses. However, the segregation occurred at a snails pace because the colonial
government made black workers pay for the sub-economic housing in the townships
through hut and poll tax.

In 1923 the Native Urban Areas Act came into force, giving local governments the power to
launch housing schemes for black workers. At the time, the Johannesburg Council applied for
a loan of 200 000 to build houses for whites. The Housing Board argued that the urgency for
subsidised housing for whites was insignificant in comparison with the urgent need to
segregate and house blacks properly. The city health inspector, Dr Charles Porter, inveighed
with the council to eradicate the slums in the city, adding that public health would be greatly
improved if location housing was provided for blacks, thereby separating them from the
suburbs in which poor whites were residing.

The pace at which sub-economic housing for blacks in segregated locations was built was
extremely slow. In the 26 years between 1901 and 1927, only 1 585 houses were built.
According to estimations at the time, 80 000 black workers were without housing in 1927.
One reason for which the pace was so slow was because the law, in the form of the evolving
Colour Bar (Davenport, 1991, p. 510), prohibited black workers from the building trades and
bricklaying. There were only allowed to mix cement. The Johannesburg housing schemes for
black residents occurred under contracts that required skilled labour that could be carried
out only by high wage white workers. This drove up the cost of housing for blacks and,
moreover, inflated the monthly rentals paid by black household heads.

54
In terms of the original legislation (the law was frequently amended), Africans could be
forced to reside in locations or compounds, but the councils had to provide the land where
Africans who were legitimately in the area of the council's jurisdiction could settle (Shorten,
1966, p. 390).

The Johannesburg council began forcibly removing Africans from the city but suffered a
setback when the High Court ruled that Africans could not be forcibly evicted from houses
that they resided in before alternative, approved housing was made available to them. Given
the prevailing racist attitudes of the time, the city council made available only the worst and
least valuable land for the purposes of African and coloured housing, that is, the land closest
to and downwind of the mine waste dumps along Main Reef Road. The city created and
expanded the Wemmerpan Bantu Hostel for African men and created the Eastern Bantu
Location while expanding the Western Bantu Location.

On 1 May 1927, the City of Johannesburg created a Department of Native Affairs, which
built 850 houses in the next two years in the Western and Eastern Bantu Locations. One of
the aims of the Native Urban Areas Act of 1923 was to control the flood of Africans into the
cities. This objective failed because the council could not keep up with the demand for
housing and by 1930 informal settlements in Sophiatown, Newclare, Martindale, Prospect
and the Muslim location were regarded as health risks by the city council (Shorten, 1966, p.
390).

Although Pimville had been established in the first decade of the 20th Century, in the 1920s
the city council decided to create a model township, 18km South-West of Johannesburg
that would accommodate 80 000 people. The ambitious plans included shopping centres, a
community hall, a hospital, a police station, a central post office, a fire station, 10 schools and
10 churches.

Building started in 1931, and four years later 3 000 houses had been completed. In 1936
another 4 000 houses followed. Between 1933 and 1939, 135 000 rural peasants, driven by
the pressure of land shortages and the tax demands of the colonial government, sought work
in the mines. This represented a 50% increase in African labour in the industry. With white
men enlisting to fight in World War 2, many other African workers, deterred by low mining
wages, were attracted to the rapidly expanding industrial sector. Wages consequently
increased by more than 50% during the war (Pallister et al., 1987, p. 38).

Despite the claims by the city officials that the removals of blacks from the suburbs of
Johannesburg was to eliminate slum conditions, the conditions in the townships where they
were moved to left a lot to be desired, as the following table taken from the report of the
manager of the Johannesburg Native Affairs Department in 1940 shows:

55
Table 3: Infant deaths - Pimville, Orlando and Western Township (1940)
Pimville Western Orlando
Klipspruit Township
Official Population 15 000 15 000 35 000
Number of drains 36 2 295 117 Per 15 000
Bins 230 220 204 Per 15 000
Taps 63 2 322 204 Per 15 000
Houses 2 392 2 322 2 524 Per 15 000
Average number of people per 16 15.5 16.7
house
Deaths of children under 5 years 210 68 117 Per 15 000
old
Source: Callinicos, 1987

The table above shows that 210 Pimville babies died before they were one year old. In 1940,
there were 229 registered births. If this figure was accurate, it meant that out of a possible
229 babies only 19 lived to see their first birthday. The main causes of infant death were
pneumonia, enteritis or diarrhoea and TB. These illnesses are associated with lack of proper
shelter and heating, an unclean environment and lack of potable water, overcrowding and
malnourishment (Callinicos, 1987, p. 188).

Between 1939 and 1946 only 1 000 new houses were constructed because of a shortage of
labour and building materials due to the war. However, the shortage of labour caused
massive inward migration, causing the black population to increase to 395 231. Many
informal settlements sprung up near Orlando West, Pimville and Alexandra in 1944. The
squatter movement, was considered to be a major health threat to parts of Johannesburg.
The informal settlements lacked potable water, sanitation or services (Shorten, 1966, p. 792).

Meanwhile, the mines of the Witwatersrand made huge profits for their international, mainly
British, shareholders, as the following table (Table 3) demonstrates. South Africa could
indeed have been a wealthy country providing all its citizens with a decent standard of living
had some of these returns stayed in the country. The working population whose sweat,
muscles and blood produced these results found themselves without political or labour
rights, without freedom of choice or movement, and without sufficient housing.

Table 4: Crown Mines returns on investment (1934 1940)

Year 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940
Crown Mines returns on 170% 170% 190% 190% 190% 190% 185%
investment
Source: Cartwright, 1968, p. 211

56
A controlled informal settlement was established in Moroka in Soweto to address the
housing crisis, providing building space for 12 000 households and 68 000 people. The
development included communal taps, clinics, beer halls and rubbish removal. Between 1947
and 1951 a further 5 233 houses were built (Shorten, 1966, p. 391).

By 1951 the newly-elected apartheid Parliament, finally realising that the labour Colour Bar
acted as a brake on building houses in segregated areas for blacks, passed the Native Building
Workers Act, with the twofold result of reducing the shortage of labour to build houses and
reducing the costs of construction of the same houses (Shorten, 1966, p. 793). The Act made
it legal for African workers to lay bricks and do skilled building work in designated black
areas, locations and townships.

Another factor that eased the supply of housing construction as far as the city council was
concerned was the passing of the Native Services Levy Act of 1952. This law determined that
employers of African labourers had to contribute a weekly levy for every African labourer for
whom no housing provision was made. In this manner, 720 000 per annum became
available to affect the racial and class segregation of the City of Johannesburg.

After 1954 the City of Johannesburg could construct 3 000 houses per annum in Pimville,
Dube, Orlando and Meadowlands. While this kept up with the inflow of Africans into the city,
it did not deal with the existing shortfall of 35 000 houses. The National Housing Commission
and later the Native Housing Board sped up housing construction loans to the City of
Johannesburg. In the decade between 1949 and 1959, 5 909 000 was allocated to the
Johannesburg council.

The mining corporations stepped in to assist the apartheid government with the racial and
class segregation of the city, following the example set by Ernest Oppenheimer of Anglo
American, who in 1956 contributed 3 million towards the clearing of black spots or slum
areas occupied by Africans from white areas. Rand Mines, Gold Fields of South Africa, Union
Corporation, the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company, General Mining and
Finance Corporation, the Anglo-American Corporation and Anglo Transvaal Consolidated
Investment Company all followed suite (Shorten, 1966, p. 392). The main beneficiary of the
enforced segregation and relocation of South Africas black African population from the
suburbs of Johannesburg into Soweto was the asbestos mining industry which formed,
through Gencor, the platform through which Afrikaner capital penetrated the mining sector.
All the houses constructed in Soweto had roofs composed of asbestos sheeting.

Large corporations that were close to the NP at that stage included Gencor, Sanlam, Nasionale
Pers, Rembrandt and others. At the same time, there was a noticeable rapprochement between
the NP and the English business establishment. It was during this time that people such as J.F.
Klopper, the leader of the Broederbond, and Nico Diedrichs, the Minister of Finance and later

57
 leader of the Broederbond, and some of the staunchest Afrikaner (national) socialists became
darlings of the Chamber of Mines when the creation of an Afrikaner mining group, Gencor, was
accepted as a payoff for not nationalising the other English mines. (Van Vuuren, 2006, p. 23)

In a recent article on the same topic, Sipho Dube wrote:

And when the small-time Afrikaner-dominated mining company Federale Mynbou took control
of General Mining, it was Anglo American, led by Harry Oppenheimer, that lent a helping hand.
[] Much has been written to the effect that this was Oppenheimers way of heading off the
Afrikaner-led government policy of separating white English-speaking people from the
Afrikaners, but some historians contend that it was the government, in unison with the
Afrikaner business community, that forced him to part with a chunk of Anglos wealth. (Dube,
2017)

Basically, the health of the black population in the townships was compromised in a deal that
retained the private ownership of mines in South Africa in return for a share in mining for
Afrikaner capital.

In 1957 and 1958, 13 000 more houses were constructed, while in Dube and Nancefield,
hostels to accommodate 10 128 single men were erected. Under the Native Resettlement
Act of 1954, the Government moved the African residents of the western suburbs of
Johannesburg to Meadowlands. Sophiatown was rezoned for whites only and renamed
Triomf (triumph) in 1956, while the southern part of the area was set aside for coloured
ownership and occupation in 1957. The removals were carried out with the precision of a
military operation, and left over a thousand unlawful residents of Johannesburg homeless.
(Davenport, 1991, p. 344)

The majority of the African population of South Africa lost all control over its lives in this
period of seeming corporate largesse, charitable gestures and racist paternalism. They were
deprived of having any choice of where they could live, were denied the right to own housing
in urban areas (cities and towns, where they could only rent), had no say in the shape, size or
colour of the houses, or the size of the stands on which the houses were constructed. They
also had no say in the building materials used to construct the houses, which often included
cement mixed with radioactive mine tailings sand and asbestos roofing. This would have
significant health impacts on generations of Sowetans. Redress in this regard should include
an investigation into the entire supply chain that benefitted from the sale of building
materials in the construction of the low-cost housing that comprises Soweto.

Having dealt with the small problem of the law, the apartheid government moved rapidly to
forcibly remove large numbers of black working-class South Africans out of white suburbs
and municipal areas. The national government became directly involved in the process in
1954. The Bantu Resettlement Committee was established with the aim of resettling the

58
black population to the South West of the city centre, where they would no longer fall under
the control of the Johannesburg City Council but under that of the Department of Non-White
Affairs at local government level and the Department of Bantu Administration nationally.
Thus, black South Africans were removed from Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare, and
resettled in matchbox houses in Meadowlands, right under the tailings/slimes dams of DRD,
Crown Mines, Randfontein Estates, West Rand Consolidated, Consolidated Main Reef and
other mines. Most black, Indian and coloured townships were established South of the
mining belt, and its attendant mine waste, and tailings and slimes dams. This is shown on
Map 14 below, in which mines 28 to 35 form the northern border of Soweto. Most of these
mines are currently abandoned, derelict or ownerless, and many are occupied by informal
settlers, while some are operated by small scale, survivalist artisanal miners (Zama Zamas),
deemed illegal by the DMR.

Map 14: Mines along the Northern boundary of Soweto (1962)

Source: Cartwright, 1962

No Name of Mine Subsidiary of Current Status

28 Randfontein Estates Johannesburg A subsidiary of Harmony Gold.
Goldmining Company Consolidated Investment Doornkop, of which the tailings
Company Limited. North of Snake Park is part,
Merged with Harmony was originally a Randfontein
Gold in 2000 Estates operation
29 West Rand General Mining and Now owned by Harmony Gold
Consolidated Mines Ltd Finance Corporation Ltd.
30 Luipaardsvlei Estate and Gold Fields of South Mintails
Gold Mining Co. Ltd. Africa Limited
31 East Champ dOr Gold Johannesburg Wes Wits, a joint venture
Mining Company Ltd Consolidated Investment between Mintails and DRD
Company Limited

59
No Name of Mine Subsidiary of Current Status
32 Durban Roodepoort Rand Mines Ltd DRD/ERGO
Deep Limited
33 Rand Leases Anglo Transvaal Wes Wits Mining
(Vogelstruisfontein) Consolidated Investment Rand Leases Vogelstruisfontein
Gold Mining Company Company Ltd. Gold Mining Company
34 Consolidated Main Reef Rand Mines Ltd Central Rand Gold
Mines Limited
35 Crown Mines Rand Mines Ltd Central Rand Gold, DRD
(ERGO), Confusion about
licence

Map 15: The wealth divide

This Google Earth Map above was adapted by the Bench Marks Research Team. It shows the
flows of wealth and poverty, environmental degradation and waste.

5.3 Main Reef Road and the segregation of labour by race, ethnicity and class

The geographical distribution of the population by race and class coincided with the
distribution of wealth and waste. The two groups were separated by Main Reef Road. Poverty
and waste flowed south of Main Reef Road, while opulence and leafy urban and suburban
development flowed north of Main Reef Road. The indigenous African population found itself
trapped in the polluted south against its will, located in between mine waste dumps by
legislative force and physical removal from the north.

60
Figure 7: Distribution of mining, wealth and waste - North/South divide

Source: Trangos & Bobbins, 2015

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) summarises the challenges facing the
Witwatersrand (Gauteng) in the following manner:
The Witwatersrand has been mined for more than a century.
It is the worlds largest gold and uranium mining basin with the extraction, from more
than 120 mines, of 43 500 tons of gold in one century and 73 000 tons of uranium
between 1953 and 1995.
The basin covers an area of 1 600km2 and led to a legacy of some 400km2 of mine
tailings dams and 6 billion tons of pyrite tailings containing 600 000 tons of uranium.

The FSE is one of the leading civil society voices regarding the environmental challenges
facing South Africa because of the legacy of mining (Liefferink, 2016).

61
6. SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPACTS
ON MINING COMMUNITIES

6.1. Riverlea

6.1.1 History and demography of Riverlea

The National Housing Commission approved a loan of almost R1 million for a housing scheme
to accommodate 623 coloured 5 households in Riverlea in 1963. The project was completed
in 1964. It was expanded in 1965 to 788 households in total (Shorten, 1966, p. 393). This saw
coloured communities moved out of white suburbs into places such as Riverlea,
Davidsonville, Reigerpark and Delmorpark along the Witwatersrand, invariably squeezed unto
dubious land in between mine waste facilities.

Photo 16: Mooifontein tailings South of Riverlea

The Mooifontein tailings South of Riverlea, shown above, rise 10 storeys high. Riverlea covers
an area of 3.4km2, cut through the middle by the Johannesburg-Soweto passenger railway
line. South of the line is Riverlea Extension, or Zombie, which is generally poorer than
Riverlea proper, which is north of the line. Riverlea has a population of 16 226 people, with a
population density of 4 771, which adds up to 91 people per square kilometre, and comprises
4 208 households. Women make up 51.47% of the population and men 48.53%. The research
team did a household health survey involving 100 households randomly selected in Riverlea

5
Coloureds in South Africa refers to mixed race communities, a colonial and Apartheid designation imposed
on a diverse community, many of whom, especially in the Northern and Western Cape, would define
themselves as San, Khoisan or Malay.

62
Extension. The predominant language in Riverlea is Afrikaans. The population composition by
race is shown in the table below.

Table 5: Riverlea population by race

Population group People Percentage
Coloured 10 917 67.28%
Black African 4 794 29.55%
Indian or Asian 269 1.66%
Other 212 1.31%
White 33 0.20%
Source: Census, 2011

All the respondents to the household questionnaire had been born in Riverlea and had lived
there all their lives. 51% of the respondents were female. Of the households surveyed, 87%
had between four and six people living in the home. Nearly half (43%) of the respondents
were between the ages of 40 and 49 years of age, 28% were between 50 and 59, while 20%
were between 30 and 39 years of age. This indicates a settled population and community.

6.1.2 Most common illnesses in Riverlea households

The most common ailments affecting the Riverlea households surveyed are indicated in the
graph below.

Graph 6: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Riverlea

The most persistent ailment identified by the respondents is coughing (31.6%), followed by
asthma (14.3%), eczema (9.2%), other ailments (9.2%), heart disease (8.2%) and sinusitis
(7.1%). If respiratory ailments are added together (a cough, sinus, asthma and TB) it comes to
a total of 56.1%. The respondents also reported eye problems (4.1%).

63
The respiratory problems might be associated with dust (from the surrounding mine
operations and tailings), asbestos roofs and/or smoking. Almost all the surveyed houses in
Riverlea had asbestos roofs (97%), 574 cigarettes were smoked per day by various members
of households (fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, etc.), but 92% of the respondents believed
their health problems were caused by the surrounding mines. All the respondents thought
that the surrounding mining operations and mine waste facilities polluted the air in their
community. Their respiratory problems were not caused by the burning of coal, paraffin, or
wood, as some mine studies of the communitys health claimed, given that 99% of the
households had access to electricity, which was installed as long ago as 1988.

Nkosi et al. (2015) suggest that there is a link between the respiratory problems among the
elderly living in or near mining communities in Gauteng and mine waste facilities. They note
that exposed communities have a higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms and
diseases such as asthma (17.3%), chronic bronchitis (13.4%), chronic cough (26.6%),
emphysema (5.6%), pneumonia (17.1%) and wheeze (24.7%), compared to unexposed
communities. Residing in exposed communities, current smoking, ex-smoking and use of
paraffin or gas as the main residential cooking/heating fuel emerged as independent
significant risk factors for chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases. While there is a strong
coincidence between the findings of Nkosi et al. (2015) and those of the Bench Marks
household survey, we can simply not ascribe the respiratory problems of the community to
paraffin, coal or wood for energy use by residents, because 99% of the households surveyed
reported using only electricity in their homes.

Despite ongoing research to ascertain the health implications of tailings dust in the
Witwatersrand region, previous studies have confirmed increased hospital admissions,
emergency room visits and mortality among patients with respiratory ailments. Many
epidemiological studies have linked levels of ambient particulate matter (PM) with a variety of
human health problems, such as silicosis, pneumoconiosis and increased risk of TB, lung cancer,
scleroderma, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Specifically, exposure to gold mine dust, that
is, rich in silica, has been linked to the development of chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and air
flow obstruction. (Oguntoke et al., 2013, pp. 2, 9-10)

The residents of Riverlea, just like residents in other communities on the West Rand, are
therefore not amiss in associating their respiratory problems with mine dust from the
surrounding mine dumps and mining operations (Wright et al., 2014). As Wright et al. (2014)
note,

the gold mine dumps and tailings dams [an industrial waste dam for mining waste or the
materials left after the fraction that has any value has been removed] were and still are sources
of air pollution, as many of them are not covered. Communities such as Davidsonville, Kagiso
and Krugersdorp in the Witwatersrand area (Gauteng Province) live alongside these gold mine
dumps and tailings dams. Many of these communities comprise historically marginalised ethnic

64
 groups living in government-funded houses, informal settlements and retirement homes.
Evidence suggests that these mine dumps and tailings dams are a dust nuisance for the local
communities during periods of high winds. This suggests multiple exposure pathways (i.e.,
breathing, drinking, eating and dermal contact) for local communities who complain of the
general deterioration of their health. Respiratory problems are a major concern.

Of the households surveyed in Riverlea, 55.1% had access to a medical doctor, while 40.8%
utilised the services of the local public nurses at the clinic. We found many Riverlea Extension
residents of all ages living on oxygen machines and who complained that their respiratory
problems were worsened by the dust from the mine dumps, especially on windy days. The
research period stretched over three years, from 2014 to 2017, and coincided with one of
the worst droughts in recent memory across the whole of South Africa. The 2015 - 2016 dust
season was not restricted to the normal August to September period, but went on from
August 2015 right through to September/October 2017.

Photo 17: During and after dust storm - view from Riverlea

The photographs above show a dust storm blocking out the Sentech Tower, as seen from
Riverlea (1 January 2016).

Map 16: Prevailing winds blowing into Riverlea and Soweto

65
Photo 18: One-year old from 'Zombie' on oxygen machine

Photo 19: Aunt Rose with her oxygen machine

Photo 20: Pennielope Paulsen passed away on 1 February 2017

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6.1.3 Comparing Riverlea to the control community of Danville

Graph 7: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville

R EA SON F OR HEA LTH CA R E ( %)

25,6
14,0

12,8
10,5

7,0
5,8

4,7

4,7
3,5
2,3

2,3

2,3
1,2

1,2

1,2
0,0

Comparing the health status of Riverlea with that of Danville makes for interesting reading. A
total of 31.6% of Riverlea residents complained about coughing, while only 14% of the
Danville residents complained of the same problem. A total of 7.1% of households in Riverlea
complained about sinusitis, whereas only 2.3% of households in Danville complained of the
same. While 14.3% of households in Riverlea complained about asthma, only 5.8% of
households in Danville complained about this particular ailment. Levels of TB are more or less
the same in the two communities. However, 9.2% of Riverlea households report eczema to
be a problem, compared to 1.2% of households in Danville. Cumulatively, only 25.6% of
households in Danville suffer from respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB),
whereas the respiratory ailments in Riverlea affect 56.1% of households. These two
communities are similar in all ways, except for two factors: firstly, in Danville, only 52.6% of
households reported having asbestos roofs, whereas almost 100% of those surveyed in
Riverlea reported having asbestos roofs. Secondly, Danville has no mine dumps.

6.1.4 Dust in Riverlea

The mining operations around Riverlea do not take dust pollution seriously. The research
team observed that there were very few dust sampling buckets in Riverlea (four in total,
according to DRD). There was one dust sampling bucket next to the community centre under
a tree, put there by Central Rand Gold (CRG). It was removed soon after the Bench Marks
Foundation posted comments regarding the shortcomings of placing a bucket under a tree
on Facebook. There was a second dust sampling bucket in Sand Street, managed by SGS and
DRD/ERGO. The residents complained that it seemed as if the dust samples were hardly ever
collected and when they were the companies responsible for the dust buckets hardly ever

67
provided the communities affected by the dust with any feedback. There was a third dust
bucket at the Johannesburg College of Education, next to Shaft 17, in between the
Mooifontein and Shaft 17 tailings dumps.

Photo 21: Central Rand Gold dust bucket - Riverlea Community Centre

The dust bucket above tells a story. Instead of using the latest model of dust samplers, the
companies operating around Riverlea and Soweto are using a sampler design dating back to
1970. It is not a very efficient design.

Diagram 1: The D1739-70, 1970 dust sampler

Source: (Annegarn, 2015, p. 11)

The efficiency, or lack thereof, of this dust sampler, is demonstrated by the following chart.

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Graph 8: Notional efficiency of the 1970 dust sampler

Source: (Annegarn, 2015)

The graph above shows that the higher the wind speed, the lower the levels of efficiency of
the dust sampler. Residents tell us that during the windy season they must clean their houses
two or three times per day. Perhaps the scientists should simply consider collecting dust
samples for analysis from the homes of Riverlea and Soweto residents! The latest approved
sampler, approved in 2004, is the ASTM Standard D1739-98, 1998 model that was
reapproved in 2004.

Diagram 2: ASTM Standard D1739-98 (2004) dust sampler

Source: (Annegarn, 2015, p. 13)

Annegarn (2015) notes that this model marginally improves efficiency; however, in the three
years that the Bench Marks team worked in Riverlea and Soweto while conducting the
research, it never came across the ASTM D1739-98 model. Annegarn (2015) concludes that
dust buckets, if properly set up, allow for good spatial coverage with low precision, and that
intervention response time will make no difference (Annegarn, 2015). In other words, they
are just a public placebo.

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Photo 22: Durban Roodepoort Deep employee collecting dust buckets

The image above shows an SGS/DRD employee collecting dust buckets in Riverlea on 12 April
2017. There are alternative, more accurate electronic means of measuring dust fall out with
detection devices. Ecotech, an Australian firm with offices in South Africa, offers fence-line
monitoring of dust and gas emissions products.

Fence-line monitoring allows mine operators to monitor dust and gas emissions but, more
importantly, it enables them to pinpoint the sources of this pollution and reduce its impact
on surrounding areas. Fence-line monitoring includes:
Wind speed and direction sensors;
Real-time dust and gas monitoring linked to wind sensors; and
Powerful software that maps pollution concentrations, direction and distance (to
source).

Station data integration allows data from multiple locations to be combined, processed and
presented in easy-to-understand reports (Mining Technology, 2017). The question then, is
why do we find bucket systems, instead of more accurate electronic systems, deployed in
densely populated, poor and marginalised communities, living in and around mine dumps in
South Africa? The industry will claim that the electronic systems are too expensive. However,
the Bench Marks Foundation would venture other reasons for this, such as the following:
As the silicosis battle between mine workers and the industry has shown, the industry
does not seem to care for the plight of its employees;
Profitability always seems to come before responsibility in the industry; therefore it
seems as if it will always go for the cheapest options when it comes to community
health and the environment;
These are poor, marginalised and voiceless communities dumped between
Johannesburgs sewage works and mine waste, treated by colonialism; and

70
 Apartheid as human waste, has seemingly been forgotten by the current government.

Annegarn (2015) is the independent consultant for DRD/ERGO, which means that he is paid
by the corporation, and serves on the Crown Mines or ERGO Gold Dust Monitoring Forum as
the chairperson. The ERGO Gold Dust Monitoring Forum is composed of the following
people:

Table 6: ERGO Gold Dust Monitoring Forum

Name Organisation Gender Race
Harold Annegarn (chairman) Independent Consultant Male White
Ruth Adora SGS Environment Female ?
Nondumiso Songo Female Black
Kerusha Naidoo Female Black
Sharon Banks Female White
Greg Ovens ERGO Mining Male White
Dave Rhodes Male White
Louis Kleynhans Male White
Geof Pollock Male White
Piet de Vries IPROP Male White
Ian van Niekerk I-CAT Male White
Phatu Raphalalani Department of the Environment Male Black
Victor Loate Male Black
Justice Netshandama COJ Male Black
Lebo Molefe ? Black
Godfrey Makomene FSE Male Black
Nemamgaya Michael Gauteng Department of Economic Male Black
and Rural Development (GDARD)
Judith Taylor Earth Life Africa Female White
Hannes Venter National Arts, Sport, Recreational Male Black
and Expo Centre (NASREC)
DMR Gauteng Regional Manager
Source: SGS/ERGO Dust Monitoring Forum, 2016

From the attendance register and apologies tendered, it would seem that no community
organisation members are on this forum. Most of those present represent corporate
interests. Interesting also is that DRD/ERGO is represented only by white males, possibly a
reflection of the lack of transformation of this mining outfit at management level. The Bench
Marks Foundation believes any consultants paid for by a mining corporation, be they auditors
or environmentalists, cannot be considered independent. The representatives from Earth
Life Africa and FSE are positive about the developments; however, they cannot speak on
behalf of communities.

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6.1.5 Specific community concerns of mining companies operating around Riverlea

6.1.5.1 Central Rand Gold

Photo 23: Central Rand Gold operation behind T.C. Esterhuysen Primary School

Photo 24: Collapsed access road

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The image above shows the collapsed access road to T.C. Esterhuysen Primary School, due to
the open cast operation of CRG. It was taken on 3 February 2017. The RCF is a very active
structure in the community. It meets every Monday in either the Catholic Church or in the
Community Centre. It regularly engages with the Bench Marks Foundation, LHR, the Legal
Resources Centre (LRC), the FSE, the DMR, SAPS, the Metro Police and the Management of
DRD/ERGO and CRG. It has laid charges of illegal dumping against CRG. The RCF has kept
meticulous files of the minutes of its own meetings, as well as meetings with other affected
parties, the mining companies, government departments, etc. It has also kept files of all its
correspondence with and from the mining companies.

The RCF raises the following concerns about the CRG operation behind T.C. Esterhuysen
Primary School:
Somehow, despite easily observable irregularities, the CRG has a province-wide
mining licence, DMR Reference Number: GP30/5/1/2/3/2/1(140) EM;
The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), in so far as they are publicly available,
for CRG operations show a single plan for multiple province-wide operations. This, the
RCF suggests, is illegal and in contravention of the National Environmental
Management Act (NEMA), the regulations associated with radioactive waste as per
the requirements of the NNR, and the Minerals and Petroleum Resources
Development Act (MPRDA);
It is not clear that the operation has an approved Environmental Management Plan
(EMP), as required by law;
It is not clear whether the operation has a water use licence, as required by the DWAF
and the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998);
The RCF alleges that CRG illegally used the water supply of the T.C. Esterhuysen
Primary School for its operations;
There is no safety exclusion zone, as required by mining best practice, between the
mine and a National Heritage Site (George Harrison Park), a primary school catering
for six to 12-year-old children (T.C. Esterhuysen Primary School), two campuses of a
technical college (The Johannesburg College of Education), a gasworks and a South
African State Oil Company (SASOL) gas pipeline, Eskom power lines, two major roads
(Nasrec Road and Main Reef Road) and a railway line. The whole operation was
undertaken with no regard for the safety of the public, including small children and
the youth. The only safe access road to the school was compromised it is collapsing
into the open cast hole and children must share this road with heavy mine vehicles;
The mine does not seem to have a proper mine closure plan, as required by the
MPRDA, given that no satisfactory document to this effect could be produced despite
numerous written enquiries by the RCF. It does not appear as if adequate funding has
been set aside for the closure of the mine. The community laid charges of illegal
dumping after the CRG seemingly attempted to turn the pit into an illegal waste

73
 dump with waste from the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL)
maintenance and expansion operation on the M1 highway;
The mine attempted to pay the RCF to close the open cast pit. The community
rejected this because the paltry sum involved would not even have covered the cost
of a single grader;
The RCF is complaining about the fact that the company that eventually received the
closure contract was not registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)
at the time of it being awarded. The website of the company portrayed it as being
involved in tourism, and as a courier services provider;
The operation was never secured with proper fencing, proper berms or signposts,
which are appalling safety and security standards;
The mine does not seem to have operation-specific Social and Labour Plans (SLPs),
but again a single province-wide plan. The community alleges that no employment
was created for residents of the community, that no SLPs were ever discussed with
the community, and that the community never derived any benefits from the
operation. Johannesburg Parks claims that they were promised R1.5 million, given
that the operation happened on Parks land, and that this payment never materialised.
Johannesburg Parks never consulted the community about the alienation of
recreational land for use as an opencast mining operation;
The operation has compromised the Constitutional Right to health and safety of
primary school children and students;
The operation represents a risk and threat to infrastructure: major roads, railway, gas
works, Eskom power and Johannesburg water;
In the presentation made by CRG to the DMR to obtain a mining licence, no attempt
at an operation-specific licence was made, and Riverlea is mentioned in only one
sentence, which is fairly meaningless: Not affecting urban development especially in
key projects and focus areas established through the mining land areas. (sic) (CRG
South Africa (Pty) Ltd, 2007, p. 36); and
Failure to stick to its SLPs or to honour the Mining Charter and abide by the MPRDA.

74
Figure 8: Philosophical foundations of Central Rand Gold-SA - approach to mining activities

No interference with developed urban and environmentally sensitive areas [Their

Riverlea operation interfered with a college, a primary school, a National Heritage Site
and a City Parks area].
Recognition of community issues, concerns and needs [The RCF and CRG have clashed
in court and at the DMR].
Environment and safety are our priorities [As evidenced by compromising the only
safe access road to a primary school, improper signage and lack of proper fencing and
security around their operation, and a complete disregard for the standard 500m
safety exclusion zone].
Co-operative approach and relationship building [The ample RCF correspondence
protesting the perceived irresponsibility of the Riverlea operation contradicts this].
Rehabilitation focus to address mining legacies [The RCF charged CRG with illegal
dumping instead of proper mine closure of its Riverlea operations].
Compliance with all legislative and policy requirements [Thus far no evidence of a
water licence for the Riverlea operation has been produced, despite numerous letters
from the RCF requesting to see it, as an example of a disregard for the law].

The sections in [ ] are the comments of the BMF research Team.

Source: CRG South Africa (Pty) Ltd, 2007

6.1.5.2 Durban Roodepoort Deep/ERGO

Our engagement with the Riverlea Community Forum (RCF) and residents of Riverlea
indicated that DRD fared only marginally better than CRG when it came to responding to the
concerns of the Riverlea Community. The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) notes that
DRD is a gold producing company specialising in the re-mining of gold tailings or slimes dams.
DRDs primary listing is on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), while its secondary listing
is on the New York Stock Exchange. DRDs assets are held through its interests in ERGO
Mining Operations (Pty) Ltd (EMO), which owns 100% of ERGO Mining (Pty) Ltd and ERPM. In
2014, DRD had 2 329 employees, including 989 permanent employees (CER, 2016, p. 67).

CER has found that DRD operates without a water licence. This is probably because it has a
province-wide mining licence instead of having separate licences for each of its operations.
Over the three-year period, the Bench Marks Research Team found that:
The dust blowing from the Mooifontein Dump onto which DRD is depositing reworked
tailings from other dumps in the area is a major problem, according to Riverlea
community residents. They perceive it to be a contributor to the poor air quality in
this community. CER reports that DRD is frequently guilty of exceedances in terms of
dust control and clean air regulations (CER, 2016).

75
Photo 25: Dust storm over Riverlea

As seen above, a dust storm over Riverlea completely obscures Mooifontein tailings dam.

Photo 26: The dry windy month of August

People with respiratory problems in Riverlea fear the dry, windy month of August. The 2010
DRD Annual Report stated that there had been a 20% decrease (to 115) in the number of
instances in which levels of dust exceeded the South African National Standards (SANS)
Standard 9. This, of course, still leaves many exceedances and many DRD operations that are
in very close proximity to residential areas. Nine complaints about dust were received by
Crown Mines during 2010. In 2011, DRD reported that dust levels also exceeded the SANS
standard on 18 occasions and complaints were received relating to dust. There were 155

76
instances in which dust levels exceeded the SANS standard in 2012. The increase from 2011
was said to be due to the decommissioning of the Crown Mines tailings facility, which led to
the dust drying out when deposition stopped. It was stated that this was only a temporary
situation. There were 51 dust level exceedances of the SANS standard in the 2012-2013
financial year (CER, 2016, pp. 70-71).

There are frequent breaches of its tailings evaporation and holding ponds, causing
spills into the Booysens River. These spills contain elevated total dissolved solids (TDS)
levels and are highly acidic.

Photo 27: Total dissolved solids measurement at the Booysens River

The above measurement, TDS 3240 ppm (the EPA upper limit for TDS is 500ppm), was taken
where tailings and operational spill and the Booysens River meet.

Photo 28: Measuring acidity and total dissolved solids at the Booysens River

77
Seen above is a community monitor checking the water for acidity and TDS at the point
where the Booysens River and mine pollution meets.

Photo 29: Durban Roodepoort Deep operation in Riverlea spraying the re-mined dump

The above photograph shows a DRD operation in Riverlea in which the re-mined dump is
being sprayed. Allegedly, DRD did not have a water licence in 2012 when this photograph was
taken. CER reports that in 2009 there was also one reportable incident involving DRD when
spillage control dams were breached at the Crown plant. This breach resulted in 600 tonnes
of slime flowing into the Russell stream, which affected an area 30m long. It was stated that
the area was in the process of being cleaned up (CER, 2016, p. 70). In the 2010 Annual Report
of DRD, it was stated that during the reporting period there had been one reportable
environmental incident. It was stated that vandalism to a pipe resulted in the spillage of 1
500 tonnes of slime (CER, 2016, p. 70). In the 2011 financial year, the company reported 16
environmental incidents. These included water pollution caused by burst pipes and
stormwater runoff, dust-related incidents and radiation incidents (CER, 2016). There were
two spillages at Crown Mines operations and three at ERGO during the year, but the 2012
report is unclear as to whether these were the same five water pollution incidents reported
to the DWAF (CER, 2016). In a response to a parliamentary question, the minister of water
and sanitation stated that, as at 25 July 2014, Crown Gold Recoveries and Crown Mine:
ERGO Mine Knights, both DRD operations, were operating without water licences, and no
applications for authorisation had been received by the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The application for authorisation submitted by a mining operation called Knights Gold in
Gauteng was reportedly in process, as was that of another unnamed DRD mine (CER, 2016, p.
71).

78
 There are frequent pipe bursts into the Booysens River, causing spills. We have
photographic evidence of this.

Photo 30: Burst mine pipe spilling into Booysens River

In the image above, taken on 25 May 2015, the contents of a burst mine pipe containing
water from a tailings dam can be seen spilling into the Booysens River. The pipe remained in
a state of disrepair for 10 days.

Photo 31: The Booysens River and Klipspruit silted up with white tailings sand

Johannesburg's natural soil colour is red. The Booysens River and Klipspruit are both silted up
with white tailings sand, as seen in the above photograph taken on 25 May 2016.

The Booysens River below the Mooifontein dump is completely silted up with tailings
sand.

79
 The DRD operations are not properly secured, fenced or signposted; they are openly
accessible to the public, including children.

6.1.6 The Riverlea communitys perception of the mining operations

Given the above, it is not surprising that the Riverlea community views mining with a high
degree of hostility.

Photo 32: Riverlea community residents blocking off an access road to Durban Roodepoort
Deep operations

Seen above are Riverlea community residents blocking off an access road to DRD operations,
due West of the community to prevent further mining activity (11 April 2017).

What do the people of Riverlea think about mining?

When asked whether they thought that mining activities around the community
affected their health, 92% of Riverlea community residents answered in the
affirmative;
All those questioned believed that mining activities polluted the air;
The community were in 100% agreement that mining polluted the water;
They all complained that mining brought migrant workers, while 85% thought that
mining might contribute to xenophobia. This happens particularly when mining
companies promise the community residents jobs before operations start, only to
disappoint them by importing trained labour from elsewhere to save costs;
Most of the community residents questioned (97%) did not believe that mines
created jobs for local communities;
Most of the community residents (96%) did not believe that mines closed and
rehabilitated their operations properly;

80
 Of the Riverlea community residents surveyed, 84% believed that formal mining
operations would bring in illegal Zama Zama operators;
All the Riverlea residents interviewed believed that the mine operations around their
community caused traffic jams; and
Almost all the Riverlea community residents surveyed (98%) did not think that the
mine was a good neighbour.

The households of Riverlea have had a very negative experience and perception of mining. If
one studies old maps of the area, the loss of recreational space and facilities for the residents
of Johannesburg in general, and Riverlea and Diepkloof in particular is obvious. Shareworld,
Atwell Gardens, Library Gardens and Booysens Reserve were all destroyed by uncontrolled
and poorly regulated mining.

Map 17: Mine waste facilities on Atwell Gardens, Shareworld recreational area and Library
Gardens

Source: Adapted from a map at the Langlaagte Police Station

The map above shows the encroachment of mine waste facilities on Atwell Gardens,
Shareworld recreational area and Library Gardens. Recreational dams and streams have also
been destroyed, including the Russell Dam, Booysens Spruit and New Canada Dam. Russell
Dam has been turned into an evaporation pond and the stream into a containment channel.
Booysens Spruit is clogged up with tailings waste, and the New Canada Dam is a toxic pond.

6.2 Diepkloof

6.2.1 History and demography of Diepkloof

Diepkloof is squeezed in between the Diepkloof tailings to the North and the Shaft 17 tailings
to the East. The attention of the research team was focused on Diepkloof Zone 3, just South
of the Diepkloof tailings, and Zone 4, just across from the N1 highway, which is dwarfed by
the Crown Mines Shaft 17 dump.

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According to Census 2011, the area of Diepkloof Zone 3 covers 0.91 km2 and has a population
of 9 897 people living in 2 401 households. Of the population, 51.4% are female, while 48.6%
are male. Black Africans comprise 99.71% of the population. Diepkloof Zone 4, according to
the 2011 Census, covers an area of 1.39km2 and has a population of 20 029 who live in 5 443
households. Women make up 50.95% of the population and men 49.05%. Black Africans form
99.35% of the population.

Photo 33: Diepkloof, in the valley below the mine tailings storage facility

The numbers of people per household in Diepkloof varies greatly, with 52.8% of households
having between five and more than seven people per household, compared to Riverlea,
where 87% of households had between four and six people per household.

6.2.2 Most common illnesses in Diepkloof households

Graph 9: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Diepkloof

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Coughing affects 32.4% of the residents surveyed, followed by other ailments at 20.3%,
fever and sinus at 8.1% and optical problems at 6.8%. Asthma affects 5.4% of the surveyed
residents, and TB, eczema, arthritis and heart disease each affect 2.7%. In Diepkloof, 53.3% of
households have asbestos roofs, compared to the 97% in Riverlea.

Respiratory problems combined (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) make up 48.6% of the health
problems of people living in Diepkloof, as compared to the 56.1% in Riverlea. Why is there
this 7.5% difference? Asthma in Riverlea exceeds that in Diepkloof by 8.9% in the households
surveyed. Is it because there are fewer asbestos roofs in the Diepkloof communities
surveyed? People in the households surveyed in Diepkloof also smoke much less than those
in Riverlea. According to those surveyed, the households in Riverlea smoke 574 cigarettes per
day, while households in Diepkloof smoke only 49 cigarettes per day.

6.2.3 Comparing Diepkloof to the control community of Danville

Graph 10: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville

Comparing the health status of Diepkloof with that of Danville makes for interesting reading.
A total of 32.4% of Diepkloof residents complained about coughing, while only 14% of
Danville residents complained of the same problem. A total of 8.1% of households in
Diepkloof complained about sinusitis, whereas only 2.3% of households in Danville
complained of the same. While 5.4% of households in Diepkloof complained about asthma,
5.8% of households in Danville complained about this particular ailment. The levels of TB are
more or less the same. However, in Diepkloof 2.7% of the households reported that eczema
was a problem, but it affected only 1.2% of households in Danville. Cumulatively, only 25.6%
of the households suffered from respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) in
Danville, whereas the respiratory ailments in Diepkloof households affected 48.6% of
households. In Diepkloof 53.3% of households had asbestos roofs, only slightly more than

83
Danville, where 52.6% of households reported having asbestos roofs. The main difference is
that Diepkloof is surrounded by mine dumps on the East and North.
In response to being asked about HIV/Aids, the respondents returned a 0% positive response.
Researchers have found that people in Soweto households say that one cannot speak about
HIV/Aids; to do so is to invite it into your home.

6.2.4 Dust and tailings dams in Diepkloof

High levels of coughing, sinus and optical problems might indicate a dust problem. Residents
spoke of opening their front doors when they returned from work in the afternoons and
finding a yellow carpet of sand running down the passage, while others complained of
having to contantly sweep out dust from their homes.

Photo 34: Dust storm over Diepkloof

The photograph above shows a dust storm over Diepkloof taken on 29 September 2017.
Kneen et al. (2015) did a study of urban encroachment into exclusion zones around mines
between 1951 and 2011 and concluded that

encroachment of housing onto land close to tailings storage facilities (TSFs), i.e. areas rendered
marginal because of the dust hazard and risk of structural failure, has continued unabated for
decades, intensifying human exposure to windblown mineral dust. Recent research indicates
that the finer milling used for modern gold extraction results in aeolian dust emanating from
the TSFs, which contributes to a higher proportion of inhalable particles in the source material.
Air quality dispersion modelling, validated by ambient aerosol monitoring campaigns, indicates
that episodic dust events generate PM10 and, specifically, quartz dust concentrations that are
unhealthy at distances of up to 2km downwind of TSFs.

Kneen et al. (2015, 142) documented residential development from 1952 to 2011 (using
historical aerial photographs, census data from 2001 and 2011 and ancillary information) to
determine the population exposed to dust emanations from the TSFs. Using the images, land
use was classified into residential areas, TSF footprints and open areas, onto which a series of

84
500m buffer zone contours were superimposed. The resulting statistics were used to assess
the populations exposed to dust hazards within the defined buffer zones.

The data shows that housing development had experienced a growth of approximately 700%
since 1952, at a rate of 14% per year. Analysis of recent monitoring campaign data has
confirmed multiple occurrences of quartz-rich inhalable dust in residential settings, at levels
that exceed occupational health standards, extrapolated to values for population exposure.

Wright et al. (2014) notes that by 2010 there were nearly 300 tailings dams in the
Witwatersrand area. Gold mine tailings generally comprise heavy metals, such as zinc,
copper, lead and arsenic, as well as chemicals used during the milling processes and other
toxic material, including cyanide and radioactive uranium. Heavy metals are associated with
neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory effects, while uranium is associated with kidney
damage (Wright et al., 2014). The Diepkloof tailings overshadow Zone 4 to the North.

Kneen et al. (2015) confirm that, while international standard practice and local mining
regulations prohibit or avoid locating residential areas closer than 500m from TSFs, the
earliest aerial photographic images of the areas within that distance around Johannesburgs
TSFs clearly show that housing development has been continuing despite the recent data on
the emerging increase in health risks for residents (2015, p. 142). They also agree that
dormitory towns sprang up near the dumps because of deliberate government forced
removals, in which Black African people were moved out of the white suburbs of
Johannesburg. After the lifting of the Group Areas Act and the re-establishment of freedom
of movement, people flooded into Gauteng in search of jobs. Instead of challenging the
spatial arrangements of apartheid, the new government continued to funnel people into the
already crowded dormitory towns by building Reconstruction and Development Programme
(RDP) housing there and allowing property developers to build houses inside exclusion zones,
in flood zones and on dangerous undermined dolomitic belts. The neo-liberal dispensation
after 1994 meant that the market dictated housing provision, which simply translated into
political apartheid being replaced by economic apartheid low wage earners continued to be
located, by the market, in low-cost housing on low-cost land. One of their focus areas is the
Crown Mines complex that divides Riverlea from Diepkloof.

Kneen et al. (2015) make the following important observations:

It is obvious that there was no (enforced) policy in place in Johannesburg to prevent human
settlements close to these tailings facilities. Since these facilities were created, buffer zones
around the TSFs, as prescribed under mining regulations, have not been enforced. After more
than half a century of mining and mine tailings in the city, Johannesburgs residents were
confident [that] they could live in the shadow of the TSFs. Since 1952, for over 50 years, this has
been true. While dust was a constant presence in these areas during spring (August, September
and October), that dust was mainly coarse, settleable particles which were not inhaled and

85
 remained primarily a nuisance. Since 2002, finer milling and generation of inhalable dust have
transformed this nuisance into a health hazard. This contributes to the current need to invest in
dust suppression and the importance of educating the local population about not damaging or
disturbing the dust mitigation measures (water sprays and vegetation on TSF surfaces). (Kneen
et al., 2015)

Photo 35: Crown Mine Complex in relation to Riverlea and Diepkloof Zones 3 and 4

Source: Google Earth Photo adapted by Bench Marks Research team

Kneen et al. (2015) concluded that:

Government and property developers ignored and continue to ignore mining
regulations concerning exclusion zones around TSFs;
After more than half a century of mining and mine tailings in the city, Johannesburgs
residents were confident they could live in the shadow of the TSFs. Since 1952, for
over 50 years, this has been true; and
Early on, the coarser dust did not represent a health challenge, but finer inhalable
dust resulting from new milling processes transformed the dust nuisance into a health
hazard.

However, Bench Marks Foundation would like to challenge some of the assumptions above
as being only partially correct, and to point out that Kneen et al. (2015) missed some
important points:
Black South Africans never became confident [that] they could live in the shadow of
TWFs. They were forced to live there through forced removals and racial segregation
associated with apartheid and colonialism;

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 Bench Marks Foundation prefers the term TWFs, to the term TSFs, especially given
that corporations simply abandon mine waste facilities, as a rule, after exploitation;
The Chamber of Mines had a tailings maintenance unit that saw to it that the tailings
were grassed and vegetated during apartheid. This unit, like many other important
units at the Chamber of Mines, simply fell away after 1994; and
Unmaintained and unsecured TWFs erode and break down, and at times also
encroach on residential areas.

Both the Shaft 17 tailings and the Diepkloof tailings impact negatively on surface water
streams in Diepkloof. These tailings are operated and maintained by DRD/ERGO. Bench
Marks Foundation has identified several spillage points from storm water channels,
evaporation and holding ponds into adjacent streams, affecting the pH and levels of TDS in
these streams.

Photo 36: Tailings spillage point

In the above image, a tailings spillage point is seen below the Diepkloof tailings, into a stream
between Zone 3 and a TWF.

Photo 37: Cattle grazing and drinking at the polluted Klipspruit

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Photo 38: Sulphur-encrusted grass

In the image above, sulphur-encrusted grass can be seen in the stream below the Diepkloof
tailings in Zone 3.

Photo 39: Total dissolved solids and pH measurements near Diepkloof

In the photograph above, a researcher is measuring the TDS and pH levels of water in a
stream running parallel to Zone 4, Diepkloof, below the N1 Highway and Shaft 17 tailings.

Photo 40: Low pH in stream below Shaft 17 tailings

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The measurements obtained from the stream below Shaft 17 tailings, next to the N1
highway, parallel to Diepkloof Zone 4, shows a low pH, which indicates that the water is
extremely acidic.

Photo 41: High total dissolved solids reading

The photograph above shows a high TDS reading from a stream below Shaft 17 tailings in
Diepkloof Zone 4.

6.2.5 Specific community concerns of mining companies operating around Diepkloof

In focus group discussions in Diepkloof, the residents complained that no one from the
mining operations nearby had ever bothered to meet with them to explain the implications
of the mine dumps or mine operations near their homes. Those in Zone 4, closest to the N1
highway and the Shaft 17 TWF, suffer a constant dust problem during the dry winter months
and flooding, damp walls and seepage during the rainy summer months.

Photo 42: Focus group discussion in Diepkloof Zone 4

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The residents complained about skin rashes, eczema and coughing, while one resident
complained of having repeated miscarriages of grotesquely deformed foetuses. One time
the nurses ran out of the room because they had never seen anything like it! There are no
government or mine-sponsored education programmes for communities living near mine
operations or mine waste facilities. Toxic streams are not secured, fenced or signposted, and
there is evidence of frequent breaches of storm water containment channels, containment
and evaporation ponds. During school holidays and weekends children play in and around the
streams.

Of concern is a youth correctional facility (prison) situated below and very close to the south-
western corner of the Diepkloof TWF, West of Zone 3. The staff, under the condition of
anonymity, informed the researchers that water was seeping up through the floors and that
the walls are all damp. The buildings are located within the stream flood plain, and well inside
the 500m exclusion zone. The facility is in direct contravention of the Constitutional right of
the inmates and staff to a healthy and safe environment.

Photo 43: Albertina Sisulu Youth Correctional Facility

Source: Google Earth Photo adapted by Bench Marks Research Team

The photograph above shows the Albertina Sisulu Youth Correctional Facility, the location of
which is in contravention of the staff and inmates right to a healthy and safe environment.

6.2.6 The Diepkloof residents perception of the mining operations

Given the above information, it is not surprising that the community expressed the following:
Of the responding households, 57.3% thought that their health problems stemmed
from mining activities in close proximity to their homes;

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 Many respondents (77%) thought that mining contributed to air pollution in
Diepkloof;
Most respondents (74%) agreed that mining caused water pollution;
Some respondents (43%) believed that mining brought in migrant workers;
Only 16% thought that mining contributed to xenophobia;
Of the surveyed respondents, 65% did not think that mining brought any jobs to their
community;
Many respondents (69%) agreed that mine owners did not rehabilitate their worked-
out mines properly;
Only 10% of Diepkloof residents thought that Zama Zamas practised formal mining;
Only 14% thought that mining operations caused traffic problems; and
Many residents (83%) thought that mines were bad neighbours.

6.3 Meadowlands

6.3.1 History and demography of Meadowlands

Of the surveyed respondents of the Bench Marks health survey, 55.9% were male, while
44.1% were female. Most of the respondents (93.8%) had lived in Meadowlands all their
lives, and 83.3% homes had three or more bedrooms, with 14.6% having only two bedrooms.
Of the surveyed households, 77.7% had more than five people residing in there.

Photo 44: Meadowlands in the shadow of Vogelstruisfontein mine waste

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6.3.2 Most common illnesses in Meadowlands households

In Meadowlands, 28.6% of the respondents selected the other category to indicate their
reason for seeking the help of health services. Coughing affected 14.3% of people, fever,
12.7%, asthma 11.1%, sinus 7.9%, TB 6.3%, eye problems 6.3% and HIV/Aids 4.8%.
Cumulative respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) affected 39.6% of the
population. Meadowlands households surveyed smoked 324 cigarettes per day. Of the
households surveyed in Meadowlands, 94% used electricity. Only 33.7% of the households
had asbestos roofs.

Graph 11: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Meadowlands

6.3.3 Comparing Meadowlands to the control community of Danville

Graph 12: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville

R EA SON F OR HEA LTH CA R E ( %)

25,6
14,0

12,8
10,5

7,0
5,8

4,7

4,7
3,5
2,3

2,3

2,3
1,2

1,2

1,2
0,0

When comparing the health status of Meadowlands with that of Danville, it was found that a
total of 14.3% of Meadowlands residents complained about coughing, while a slightly lower
14% of Danville residents complained of the same problem.

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A total of 7.9% of households in Meadowlands complained about sinusitis, whereas only 2.3%
of households in Danville complained of the same. While 11.1% of households in
Meadowlands complained about asthma, only 5.8% of households in Danville complained
about this particular ailment. The levels of TB were more or less the same. However, in
Meadowlands, 3.2% of households reported that eczema was a problem. It affected only
1.2% of households in Danville. Cumulatively, only 25.6% of households suffered from
respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) in Danville, whereas the respiratory
ailments in Meadowlands households affect 39.6% of households. In Meadowlands, 33.7% of
the homes had asbestos roofs, significantly less than Danville, where 52.6% of the
households reported that they had asbestos roofs. The two significant differences between
Danville and Meadowlands are that Meadowlands has tailings waste on its Northern Border
(though better grasses than the dumps in Riverlea and Diepkloof), and Meadowlands has
significantly fewer asbestos roofs.

6.3.4 Dust and tailings dams in Meadowlands

Generally, the TWFs that stretch along the northern boundary of Meadowlands are better
grassed and maintained. Nonetheless, the residents complained about dust during the dry
season. It is also concerning that there are many schools and education facilities (eight
schools in total) in the last blocks before the TWFs. The houses in the last blocks before the
tailings are well within the 500m exclusion zone, which was simply ignored by both the
government and property developers.

Photo 45: Dust bucket in Meadowlands

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Photo 46: Meadowlands residential blocks

Source: Google Earth Photo adapted by Bench Marks Research Team

The image above shows Meadowlands residential blocks constructed within the 500m
exclusion zone of TWFs. According to Module 3: Toxicology (Section 10: Other Heavy Metals),
arsenic is produced as a by-product of mining or the smelting of copper and other non-
ferrous metal ores, including gold. Arsenic is absorbed by ingestion, skin absorption or
inhalation (School of Public Health and Family Medicine, 2017). In a seminal paper on the
subject, Martin et al. write:

Arsenic in dust and aerosol generated by mining, mineral processing and metallurgical
extraction industries is a serious threat to human populations throughout the world. Major
sources of contamination include smelting operations, coal combustion, hard rock mining, as
well as their associated waste products, including fly ash, mine wastes and tailings. The number
of uncontained arsenic-rich mine waste sites throughout the world is of growing concern, as is
the number of people at risk of exposure. Inhalation exposures to arsenic-bearing dust and
aerosol, in both occupational and environmental settings, have been definitively linked to
increased systemic uptake, as well as carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic health outcomes. It is,
therefore, becoming increasingly important to identify human populations and sensitive
subpopulations at risk of exposure and to better understand the modes of action for pulmonary
arsenic toxicity and carcinogenesis. (Martin et al., 2014, p. 127)

While it is well-documented that mine tailings represent major sources of arsenic-

contaminated dust throughout the world, the contribution by these sources to total global
atmospheric arsenic fluxes is yet to be assessed (Martin et al., 2014, p. 131).

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Figure 9: Dangers of lead and arsenic poisoning

Source: Alliance to End Childhood and Lead Poisoning, 2017

Eczema seems very common in near mine communities. In Meadowlands, the research team
encountered Tebogo Dikobe 6, a nine-year-old child with severe eczema. Tebogos
grandmother was at her wit's end. The public clinics lacked the medicines to help the child,
while the public hospitals kept referring him back to the clinics. After the research team
relayed his story on public media, a Muslim doctor offered to help the child free of charge.
After treating Tebogo continuously for three months with little success, the doctor asked
questions about his home environment. After learning that Tebogo lived in the shadow of
TWFs in Meadowlands, the doctor suggested that he relocated to live with his paternal
grandmother instead. The doctor believed Tebogo suffered from arsenate eczema of
hyperkeratosis (scaling skin). We found several similar cases in Riverlea and Snake Park.

Photo 47: Tebogos skin condition

6
Not his real name

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As seen in the above photographs, Tebogo is suffering from a severe skin condition, which
could be caused by arsenic, lead or uranium exposure. We noted in section 4.1.4 above that
arsenic is very common in gold-containing conglomerates that make up the gold reefs of
South Africa. Various studies also show that it is present in TWFs and is therefore likely to be
in tailings dust (Corriveau et al., 2011). Residents living in the shadow of gold tailings could
ingest arsenic, lead or uranium through dust blowing into the kitchen and onto eating
utensils and into cooking pots. It could also be absorbed from dust blowing onto washing that
is drying on outside washing lines, inhaled when walking in the streets, or inhaled due to dust
accumulating in their houses during dust storms.

Using a Smart Geiger device, the research team obtained some rather disturbing radioactivity
readings in the blocks closest to the tailings, North of Meadowlands on 27 January 2017.

In 2016, the NNR finally conceded that there were no legislation or regulations to measure
and control indoor radon emissions. It further conceded that if mine waste was not being
properly managed, housing development in South Africa has and continues to take place in
high-risk radioactive exposure areas. Currently, the NNR Act and Regulations are being
revised to include existing exposures, as well as indoor radon. In future, the NNR will advise
the government to include mandatory radon measurements in housing regulations and
building codes (Pule & Speelman, 2016, p. 22). This is after 100 years of gold mining and the
deliberate situation of low-cost housing for the black working class near toxic, radioactive
mine waste, from 1904 to the present.

Photo 48: Radioactivity readings obtained in Meadowlands

The radioactivity reading shown above is a major cause for concern.

6.3.5 Past and present mining activities in Meadowlands

Given that the DMR seems to have allocated province-wide rather than operation-specific
mining licences, and approved province-wide rather than operation-specific EIAs and
management plans, it has come to the attention of the Bench Marks Foundation that there is

96
a degree of confusion over which old, derelict mines now belong to the new DRD, CRG or
West Wits operations. From the websites of these companies, we see overlapping and
confusing maps. This impacts the public responsibility and accountability of these mines.

Map 18: Original mines to the North of Meadowlands

The map above indicates the original mines to the north of Meadowlands, which were:
Consolidated Main Reef Mines, Rand Leases (Vogelstruisfontein) and DRD Ltd.

Map 19: West Wits Project, north and north-west of Soweto

Source: Wes Wits

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Map 20: Central Rand Gold operational areas

Source: CRG

Map 21: Central Rand and Durban Roodepoort Deep rights

Source: DRD

The map above indicates Central Rand and DRD rights, yet DRD is operating the Crown Mines
Complex. Adding to this confusion, it is not clear whether the EIA and EMP approvals were
given to the DMR, according to which, for example, CRG has approval for Vogelstruisfontein
231 IQ, Mooifontein 225 IQ, Randskou 324 IQ, Ormonde 99 IR, and Diepkloof 319 IQ. The

98
Bench Marks Foundation has established that Mooifontein, Randskou, Ormonde and
Diepkloof are actually operated by DRD and not CRG.

Figure 10: Undated Environmental Management Programme approval for Central Rand Gold
operations

6.3.6 Meadowlands perception of the mining operations

The Meadowlands community does not have the same level of community organisation as
their counterparts in Diepkloof and Riverlea, but expressed the following:
Of the Meadowlands residents surveyed, 43% think that their health problems are
associated with mining, and 35.5% of them are not sure;
Most of the surveyed households (83%) believe that mining pollutes the air;
Only 11% of the Meadowlands residents consider that mining pollutes water;
Few people (27%) believe mining brings in migrant labour; and
Only 10% hold the view that mining leads to xenophobia.

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6.4 Doornkop Informal Settlement in Snake Park

6.4.1 History and demography of Doornkop

The demographic statistics for Doornkop are not to be found on the pages of Statistics South
Africa because they are subsumed into the statistics of Dobsonville. It is estimated that
Doornkop has a population of some 2 500 people living in shacks, near the Doornkop tailings.
Some have now been accommodated in RDP housing within the flood plain of one of the
tributaries of the Klipspruit.

Photo 49: Doornkop informal settlement

Harmonys Doornkop Gold Mine is to the west of Snake Park, and the old unmaintained
Doornkop tailings are to the north. Of the respondents to the household health survey,
73.3% were women, and 43.3% had lived in Snake Park all their lives, while another 43.3%
had lived there for more than 10 years. Unlike the other communities surveyed, 63.3% of the
respondents lived in shacks, while only 26.6% lived in RDP houses. Many of the RDP houses
were in the swampy floodplain of a stream that is fed from runoff from the Doornkop tailings
dam.

6.4.2 Most common illnesses in Doornkop (in Snake Park) households

Doornkop is the exact opposite of Riverlea when it comes to asbestos, because only 6.5% of
the dwellings have asbestos roofing in this community, compared to 97% in Riverlea. The
household health complaints were dominated by coughing, which affected 50.7% of the
respondents, followed by fever (24.6%). Asthma and TB followed at 5.8% and sinus problems
at 4.3%. The cumulative respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) added up to

100
66.6% of health complaints in this community. All the households were connected to
electricity, although many connections were illegal and we observed that electricity supply
was often disrupted by load shedding; thus coal, paraffin and wood would be the only factors
affecting respiratory problems in the community during times of load shedding. Smoking in
households in the Doornkop households surveyed in Snake Park was low compared to the
households surveyed in other communities; about 179 cigarettes are smoked per day here.

Graph 13: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Doornkop (Snake Park)

Of the surveyed residents, 59.6% had required healthcare in the 30 days previous to being
questioned, while another 21.1% had sought medical attention in the previous year. A few
people (5.4%) indicated that there was only one healthcare provider (the local public clinic) in
the area in which they lived. In Snake Park, 95.3% of the households received their treatment
from a public nurse, and only 2.3% accessed a medical doctor. A key informant and monitor
in the community found eight children aged between nine and 11 years with both mental
and physical challenges. Researchers suspect either arsenate or lead poisoning, or exposure
to radioactivity during the mothers pregnancies.

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 Radioactivity, Cerebral Palsy and other Birth Deformities
Uranium poisoning in Punjab first made news in March 2009, when a South African Board-Certified
Candidate Clinical Metal Toxicologist, Carin Smit, visiting Faridkot city in Punjab, India, was
instrumental in having hair and urine samples taken (2008/09) from 149/53 children respectively,
who were affected with birth abnormalities, including physical deformities, and neurological and
mental disorders. These samples were shipped to Microtrace Mineral Lab, Germany.

At the onset of the action research project, it was expected that heavy metal toxicity might be
implicated as the reason for which these children were so badly affected. Surprisingly, high levels of
uranium were found in 88% of the samples and in the case of one child the levels were more than 60
times the maximum safe limit.

A study, carried out among mentally retarded children in the Malwa region of Punjab revealed tthat
that 87% of children below 12 years and 82% beyond that age had uranium levels high enough to
cause diseases. Uranium levels in samples of three children from Kotkapura and Faridkot were also
62, 44 and 27 times higher than normal.

Subsequently, the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, Faridkot, sent samples of five children from
the worst-affected village, Teja Rohela near Fazilka, which has over 100 children who are
congenitally mentally and physically challenged, to the same lab.

Since 2009, Micro Trace Minerals of Germany has continued testing cancer patients living in the
Malwa Region of Punjab, the area known for having the highest cancer rate in India. Patient
evaluation and the collection of nail samples were carried out with the help of Prof. Chander Parkash
of the Technical University of Punjab. As with previous studies, high uranium was found in nearly all
the test persons. The work was published in the British Journal of Medicine and Medical Research in
2015.

Source: (Wikipedia, 2016)

Photo 50: Two physically and mentally challenged children - Doornkop

The images above show two of many severely physically and mentally challenged children
found in Doornkop Informal Settlement and Snake Park. The exceptionally high Geiger
reading was obtained on 17 November 2016 in the presence of an SABC television crew. In a

102
report published by the DWAF in 2003 on levels of radioactivity in the water in the Klip River
catchment, it is reported that two of the sites showed marginal radioactivity status for
infants, namely the Klip River at Durban Deep mine downstream from the discharge from No
5 shaft, which needs closer monitoring, and the Russel stream at New Canada road. At both
sites care should be taken that the water is not used by infants under one year of age.
(Kempster et al., 2003, p. 31) The readings obtained in the study at these points ranged from
1mSv/a to 10mSv/a. It is therefore only logical to deduce from this that the water referred to
would be harmful to the unborn foetus, should pregnant mothers consume it. We also found
other children with the same condition in other near-mine communities, including Riverlea
and Reigerpark.

Figure 11: Impact of radiation on the unborn foetus

Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017

The figure above explains the impact of radiation on the unborn foetus. The health effects of
radiation on the foetus can be severe, even at radiation doses too low to make the mother
sick.

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The Bench Marks Foundation notes several shortcomings in the study:
It did not measure the water in the tailings evaporation ponds;
It did not measure the water at spill points where tailings water flows directly into the
Booysens Spruit, the Russel stream or the Klipspruit;
It did not note that children from near tailings communities swim in this water;
It does not mention that there are some communities who, prior to being linked to
the Rand Water grid, possibly consumed water directly from tailings facilities along
the edge of Soweto;
It failed to look at seepage into RDP houses built in stream flood plains, or the
artificial wetlands that result from tailings ground water plumes; and
It confuses Russel Stream with Booysens Spruit. Russel Stream goes nowhere near
New Canada Road.

Figure 12: Prenatal radiation exposure

It is especially important that pregnant women follow instructions from emergency

officials and seek medical attention as soon as emergency officials say it is safe to do so
after a radiation emergency.
o A developing foetus is highly susceptible to health effects from radiation exposure
because of the rapid rate of cell division.
Prenatal radiation exposure occurs when the mother's abdomen is exposed to radiation
from outside her body.
o A pregnant woman who accidentally swallows or breathes in radioactive materials
could absorb them into her bloodstream. From the mother's blood, radioactive
materials might pass through the umbilical cord to the foetus or concentrate in
areas of the mother's body near the womb (such as the urinary bladder) and
expose the foetus to radiation.
The possibility of severe health effects depends on the gestational age of the foetus at
the time of exposure and the amount of radiation it is exposed to.
o Foetuses are particularly sensitive to radiation during their early development,
namely between weeks 2 and 18 of pregnancy.
The health effects to the foetus can be severe, even at radiation doses too low
to make the mother sick.
These can include stunted growth, deformities, abnormal brain function, or
cancer that might develop sometime later in life.
Women have an increased risk of fatal miscarriages. Foetuses are less sensitive to
radiation during the later stages of pregnancy (after 18 weeks).
Since the foetus is shielded by the mother's abdomen, it is partially protected in the
womb from radioactive sources outside the mother's body. This means that the
radiation dose to the foetus is lower than the dose to the mother for most radiation
exposure events.

Source: Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017

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6.4.3 Comparing Doornkop (Snake Park) to the control community of Danville

A total of 32.4% of Diepkloof residents complained about coughing, while only 14% of
Danville residents complained of the same problem. A total of 8.1% of households in
Diepkloof complained about sinusitis, whereas only 2.3% of the households in Danville
complained of the same. While 5.4% of the households in Diepkloof complained about
asthma, 5.8% of households in Danville complained about this particular ailment. The levels
of TB were more or less the same. However, in Doornkop 2,9% of the households reported
that eczema was a problem; it affected only 1.2% of the households in Danville. Cumulatively,
only 25.6% of the households suffered from respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and
TB) in Danville, whereas the respiratory ailments in the Doornkop households affected 66,6%
of the households. These two communities are similar in all ways. In Diepkloof 53,3% of the
homes have asbestos roofs, only slightly more than Danville, where 52,6% of households
reported that they had asbestos roofs. The main difference is that Diepkloof is surrounded by
mine dumps on the East and North.

Graph 14: Reasons for seeking healthcare in Danville

Doornkop is part informal settlement, part RDP housing, of which many of the houses are
located within the annual floodplain of a river that is fed straight from the Doornkop tailings.
A total of 50.7% of Doornkop residents complained about coughing, while only 14% of the
Danville residents complained of the same problem. A total of 4.3% of households in
Doornkop households complained about sinusitis, whereas only 2.3% of households in
Danville complained of the same. In Doornkop, 5.8% of households complained about
asthma, as did the households in Danville. The levels of TB were also more or less the same.
However, in Doornkop 2.9% of households reported that eczema was a problem which
affected only 1,2% of the households in Danville. Cumulatively, only 25.6% of the households

105
suffered from respiratory problems (cough, sinus, asthma and TB) in Danville, whereas the
respiratory ailments in Doornkop households affected 66.6% of the households.
These two communities are different in that asbestos does not feature at all in Doornkop,
while 52.6% of the households reported having asbestos roofs in Danville. Another difference
is that Doornkop is located in the shadow of the abandoned Doornkop tailings, which lacks
plant cover and maintenance.

6.4.4 Dust and tailings dams in Doornkop

Photo 51: Doornkop tailings and surrounding communities

During visits by the Bench Marks research team to Snake Park during the summer months,
children were frequently found swimming in the tailings evaporation ponds. This is of great
concern, given that the tailings are acidic and contain heavy metals such as uranium, arsenic
and lead.

Photo 52: Children swimming in tailings water below the Doornkop tailings waste facility

106
The tailings pictured above are entirely accessible to the public; there are no guards, no
fences and no warning signs. Children are swimming in the acidic, toxic tailings water below
the Doornkop TWF. According to informants, the City of Johannesburg and the Department
of Agriculture are encouraging people to invade the 500m exclusion zone around the tailings
to take up farming. This is without prior research regarding the suitability of this land, given
that it is covered in tailings dust fallout and tailings water seepage and spills. These farmers
do not have piped water, and it is almost certain that their livestock is watered with tailings
water. Seen in the photograph below is tailings mud flooding into land from Doornkop TWFs,
occupied by small scale informal farmers (January 2017).

Photo 53: Tailings mud flooding into land from Doornkop tailings waste facility

Photo 54: Breach in the wall of evaporation/holding pond

A clear breach in the wall of the evaporation/holding pond below Doornkop TWF is evident in
the photograph taken in January 2017. In the photograph below, tailings water streaming

107
through a breach in the tailings pond wall below the Doornkop TWF can be seen (January
2017).

Photo 55: Tailings water streaming through breach in tailings pond wall

Photo 56: Farming in a tailings wasteland below Doornkop tailings waste facility

The residents of the Doornkop informal settlement, be they in shacks or in RDP housing, also
suffer the inconvenience of tailings-polluted water bubbling up through their floors during
the rainy season, because they are living within the floodplain of a stream, into which runoff
from the Doornkop tailings is spilling.

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Photo 57: Water bubbling up in the kitchen and bedroom - Doornkop

6.4.5 What do the Doornkop (Snake Park) people think of having a mine as a neighbour?

It should be mentioned that the perception of the Doornkop community, according to the
survey results, is remarkably different from the other communities. This community seems to
be indifferent to mining in the area.
When asked whether they thought that mining activities around the community
affected their health, only 5.6% of Doornkop community residents answered in the
affirmative; and
Only 40.5% of the interviewees in the community thought that the mine was not a
good neighbour, although 100% of them believed that the mine was responsible for
air pollution and 98.1% believed that the mine caused water pollution.

Although the Doornkop residents admitted that mining activities in the area polluted the air
and water, brought migrant workers to the community (93.5%) and did not rehabilitate their
operations (76%), they did not link these issues to poor health and well-being.

7. CONCLUSION

This report provided a socio-geological and historical overview, answering key questions
about popular international and national perceptions about Soweto and the fact that,

109
although the first forced resettlements of people to Kliptown (a township in Soweto) took
place between 1904 and 1906, Sowetos recorded history seems to start only with the
student uprisings of 1976.

The report proceeded to give an account of the geological history of the Witwatersrand in
general and the basin in which Soweto, as a collection of townships, evolved. This geological
history is important because many of the positive and negative impacts of mining from the
longest-lasting gold reef in the world derive from it. These impacts are those on water, air,
soil, ecosystems, and human health and well-being. Hydrology and meteorology were also
investigated because, on the Rand, the predominant directions of the wind will determine
who eats dust, and in which direction sewage and waste flows.

The history of Soweto followed, showing how it was shaped by concerns for the health and
well-being of Johannesburgs white European population and their racial attitudes towards
the black African population. The dependence of the white population, and that of the
mining industry on the cheap labour supplied by the black population, led to an
overdeveloped suburban society on the northern side of the ridge that separates
Johannesburg from the underdeveloped, poverty stricken Soweto, in which Johannesburgs
black working class was accommodated in cheap dormitory housing. This separation of races
was central to apartheid, which had a political dimension, an economic/class dimension, a
physical-geographical dimension, as well as an ecological dimension. The role of successive
governments and of mining interests in the evolution of Soweto was carefully traced. The
tragedy of post-apartheid South Africa is that authorities have done nothing to change the
spatial/geographical arrangements of apartheid the poor continue to be black, working
class, marginalised and trapped on the worst land in Gauteng, and living in substandard
housing.

Finally, the results of household health surveys done in five Soweto communities, namely
Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands, and the Doornkop informal settlements of Snake Park and
Davidsonville, were shared. These communities were then compared to the results of a
control group in Danville, Mafikeng. These results raise issues regarding ill-health and their
possible origins in the impacts of mining along the eastern, northern and north-western rim
of Soweto. Of concern here is the preponderance of respiratory problems in Soweto
households. Also worrying is the complete disregard for legislative and regulatory
requirements concerning TWFs, whether they are in the process of being re-mined,
abandoned, ownerless or derelict. It is disturbing that safety exclusion zones around mine
waste facilities have not been maintained, having instead been invaded by both formal
property developers and informal settlers. Clearly, local government, the banks and property
developers have little concern for the Constitutional right of citizens to a healthy and safe
environment.

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8. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The research team focused on a very specific area in South Africa. Consequently, some of the
recommendations relate specifically to the area studied, but the problems which have been
uncovered are not unique to these communities. Therefore the recommendations to local,
provincial and national government are not applicable to these communities only, but to
mine impacted communities nationally.
Drawing on the research results the following findings and recommendations are made:

8.1 Government

8.1.1 Departments of Mineral Resources, Environmental Affairs, and Water and Sanitation

8.1.1.1 Summary of findings on Acid Mine Drainage

The research has shown that AMD is a real threat to the well-being of the inhabitants of all
the townships adjacent to mining activities, be they active operations, or ownerless, derelict
or abandoned mines. AMD threatens communities, farmers and water consumers who bear
the brunt downstream, but the danger is not limited to liquid waste from mining activities
entering the natural water sources in and around Soweto, but also comes from sewage,
industrial and municipal waste.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations regarding Acid Mine Drainage

To begin to address the very real problems posed by AMD, the government must:
Prevent the future loss of aquatic habitat to AMD;
Record and clean up existing acid-generating mine sites;
Improve public access to information on monitoring and enforcement of AMD
treatment and reclamation; and
Prevent future AMD by improving environmental risk assessment and adopting a
liability prevention approach to future AMD mine assessments.

8.1.1.2 Summary of findings on the regulatory framework

While laws and regulations exist and existed in the past, failure by previous and current
governments to enforce the laws and regulations has caused the problems associated with
mining to spiral out of control. Not only did mining consume and waste huge quantities of
water in the past (and continues to do so at present), but abandoned, ownerless and derelict
mines continue to poison water and will continue to do so in the future unless this situation is
addressed.

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Regarding residential exposure to radon, Herbsts recent research was focused on specifying
the effect of residential radon on lung cancer risk. In these studies, scientists measure radon
levels in the homes of people who have lung cancer and compare them to the levels of radon
in the homes of people who have not developed lung cancer. Despite the location of
thousands of low-cost township and location houses near and sometimes on mine waste,
radon is never measured in or outside these houses by the relevant government authorities
(Ismael, 2016). Radon measurements of mine waste and in houses must be monitored by the
government, and be successfully minimised to comply with international requirements.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations on the regulatory framework governing mining

The above matters fall within the purview of the departments of Water and Sanitation, the
Environment and Mineral Resources, and must be dealt with on a short-, medium- and long-
term remedial basis.

8.1.2 National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), Department of Health, Department of Human

Settlements and National Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH)

8.1.2.1 Summary of findings on the need for radon regulations

South Africa lacks adequate radon regulations for the building industry and residential
property development. Our research has found that building contractors and residents
frequently load toxic and radioactive tailings sand, which is retailed and used in the cement
mix to construct or extend houses in Soweto. Radon is the second highest cause of lung
cancer after smoking. The impact of radon on the residents of low-cost township housing in
Soweto has been ignored, and this criminal neglect must be set right.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations on radon regulations

Given that quartz-rich inhalable dust in residential settings are occurring at levels that
exceed occupational health standards, the Bench Marks Foundation believes that
government and mine owners should be obliged to compensate residents living in the
proximity of TWFs for compromising their health.
We call on the NNR and the Department of Health to undertake an epidemiological
study on the impacts of mining on the health of communities in the areas we have
studied, focusing particularly on the respiratory illnesses caused by the dust from the
mine dumps. This must include the impacts of radioactive mine waste, particularly
uranium, which produces radon when it decays.
The NNR should immediately draft concept legislation for tabling in parliament, and
after the requisite consultation, the bill should be passed into legislation. Such
legislation should not include any exclusionary clauses.

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 The NNR, the Department of Health and NIOH should do proper epidemiological
research into the impact of Radon on Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands,
Doornkop/Snake Park and Davidsonville.

8.1.3 South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)

8.1.3.1 Summary of findings on human rights violations

Regarding the impacts of waste from or at ownerless and derelict mines, this study revealed
severe violations of human rights through the decisions made about destructive industrial,
environmental and health impacts on the lives of the inhabitants of the researched
townships. The people of Riverlea and Soweto did not choose to live where they are. These
communities have also been kept in the dark about the dangers posed by surrounding mine
waste polluting water and impacting air quality (dust through poor waste management and
ongoing waste from reclamation operations). Community representatives are seemingly
excluded by design from pollution-monitoring committees. In addition, the mining TWFs are
all unguarded, unfenced and poorly managed, posing a serious risk of illnesses and disease in
the researched communities.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to the South African Human Rights Commission
The SAHRC must investigate the pollution legacy, including the denial of, or the violations of
the Constitutional right of the residents of these communities to a healthy and safe
environment, as well as the right of people to represent themselves in matters affecting
them. The communities would surely welcome public hearings in the affected areas.

8.1.4 The Green Scorpions (Department of the Environment Special Investigations Unit)

8.1.4.1 Summary of findings regarding environmental transgressions

Both legacy and current, in some instances, repeated transgressions of environmental laws
and serious instances of life-threatening pollution were identified in this report.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to the Green Scorpions

We recommend that the Green Scorpions and the Department of Environmental Affairs
investigate the ever-worsening environmental health situation facing the communities of
Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and Snake Park. Such an investigation must seek redress
and reparation from the following groups:
Former owners of abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines, as well as the Chamber
of Mines;
Department of Mineral Resources;

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 Department of Environmental Affairs;
Department of Health;
City of Johannesburg; and
NNR.

8.2 Parliament

8.2.1 Summary of findings concerning the prevalence of asbestos

Asbestos is still extensively present in Soweto and Riverlea, affecting both air quality and soil,
even though the use of all asbestos was banned in South Africa in March 2008.

Bench Marks recommendations to Parliament on the issue of asbestos

Parliament, through its Portfolio Committee for Environmental Affairs, based on its
experience in convening national asbestos summits, should investigate why so many
communities, such as Riverlea, remain exposed to asbestos, despite the complete
banning of all use of this building material on March 28, 2008.
We accordingly call upon Parliament to establish a National Parliamentary Inquiry into
compensation and other remedial systems to make necessary changes to bring to an
end the impacts of asbestos on Soweto and Riverlea communities. Furthermore, the
proposed inquiry should investigate how communities can have a direct say in the
Multidisciplinary Asbestos Advisory Group (MAAG) that was to have been set up
following the 1998 Asbestos National Summit.

8.2.2 Summary of findings on inclusive health and the right to a healthy and safe
environment

The research report shows that communities are not properly consulted before mining
licences are issued and that their right to free, prior and informed consent and their right to
say no to mining are serially ignored. Communities are also excluded from the Environmental
Impact Assessments and Social and Labour Plan processes. This situation emanates from
weak legislation and the subversion of existing laws and regulations by mining companies,
often with the collusion of government officials.

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Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to Parliament on inclusive health and the right to a
healthy and safe environment
It is recommended that Parliament, particularly the relevant portfolio committees of Mineral
Resources and Environmental Affairs, urgently intervene to remedy the legislative and policy
(political) exclusion of mining communities or communities affected by mining. This will mean
urgently working to amend the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996, as well as the
National Health Laboratory Service Act No. 37 of 2000, not excluding the
National Water Amendment Act 27 of 2014 and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Development Act No. 28 of 2002 to include mining and mining-affected communities. This
will go a long way towards fulfilling the Constitutional guarantees to the right to a healthy
and safe environment, which requires the state to take legislative and other measures to
achieve the progressive realisation of these rights.

8.2.3 Summary of findings on abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines

There are as many as 6 000 abandoned, ownerless and derelict mines in South Africa, with an
estimated 600 in Gauteng alone. These mines pose serious health and safety risks for near-
mine communities. The Bench Marks Foundation notes that the mine closure fund located in
the DMR stands at R50 billion, with the fund for Gauteng standing at R10 billion.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to Parliament on abandoned, ownerless and

derelict mines
Parliament should pass laws for the creation of a special investigative unit, with mining
community participation and oversight, also involving civil society organisations, to trace and
find the owners of these so-called ownerless and derelict mines, with the aim of holding
these polluters accountable in line with the polluter pays principle recognised in the
National Environmental Management Act.

Furthermore, it needs to be ensured that all the relevant authorities are empowered to
ensure proper closure of mines and that the real and true costs of such closures are kept in
accounts by Treasury. The BMF believes that prevention and strong regulations are better
cures than after-the-fact responses.

8.3 Metro and Local Governments

8.3.1 Summary of findings on the geographical setting of townships and industrial areas

On the geographical setting of townships/industrial areas, and the allocation of mining

licences, during our research we observed:

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 The calculated geographical location of townships near mine TWFs such as tailings
dams or, alternatively, the deliberate siting of tailings dams near townships,
disregarding the common norm of not building within the 500m exclusion zones
around mine waste facilities;
The deliberate location of industrial zones near mine waste facilities;
The deliberate location of mine waste near rivers and water sources, and lately the
allocation of mining licences for the catchment areas of important rivers;
Extensive spillage from mining operations and mine TWFs into streams, wetlands and
rivers; and
The allocation of mining licences for areas in which 500m exclusion zones are
common in Gauteng and which are disasters waiting to happen. Mines within 500
meters from major roads, railway lines, housing, schools, electric power lines, and
petroleum and water pipelines are shortsighted and not in the interest of public
health and safety. In fact, Meadowlands, Riverlea, Davidsonville, Reigerpark and
Delmorpark are all townships in which housing is located without any attention to
exclusion zones.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to Metro and Local Governments

The above matters require the urgent attention from all three spheres of government to,
among others, provide the following:
Better protection of heritage sites, e.g. George Harrison Park and TC Esterhuysen
School;
Better protection in terms of the Constitutional right to a healthy and safe
environment, e.g. TC Esterhuysen School and Johannesburg College and all near mine
communities;
Stricter enforcement of building laws and regulations that prohibit building in flood
plains, such as in Diepkloof and Doornkop;
Stricter enforcement of waste management laws and regulations, and of the 500m
exclusion zones. The Bench Marks Foundation insists that exclusion zones of between
500 and 2000 meters become law instead of just being a rule of thumb norm.
Stricter enforcement of SLPs and the Mining Charter; and
Effective monitoring and implementation of remedial steps to be taken by
government (local government sphere), and the DMR.

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8.4 National Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) and the National
Institute for Occupational Health (NIOH)

8.4.1 Summary of findings on dust

The research has shown that dust levels from mine waste downwind into communities pose a
constant irritation and threat to the health and well-being of the inhabitants of the adjacent
townships.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to CANSA and NIOH regarding dust

The Bench Marks Foundation calls on the National Cancer Association of South Africa and on
the NIOH to do the necessary research into the dust levels in the researched communities,
especially because research has found that the levels in these communities in some cases
exceed that which is considered the upper limit in the workplace.

8.5 Department of Mineral Resources and Mining Companies

8.5.1 Summary of findings on mining activities

Mining voids filling up with water (see Item 4.1.3). Heavy metal contamination and
leaching heavy metal pollution is caused when metals such as arsenic, cobalt, copper,
cadmium, lead, silver, uranium and zinc contained in excavated rock or exposed in an
underground mine come into contact with water.
Processing chemicals pollution. This kind of pollution occurs when chemical agents
(such as cyanide or sulphuric acid used by mining companies to separate the target
mineral from the ore) spill, leak, or leach from the mine site into nearby water bodies.
Land subsidence and sinkholes in the great dolomitic belts that underlie most of the
South African goldfields caused by mining act as drains and sinks into which the
underground water flows, leaving the current and future generations with a massive,
dangerous and expensive environmental challenge.
Mine TWFs: It is common that TWFs are unguarded, unfenced and not properly
signposted. Where there are warning signs, these are often inadequate and
downright misleading. There is also no attempt to educate near-mine communities
about the dangers posed by derelict, abandoned and ownerless mines;
Adjacent communities: The presence of uranium and other heavy metals in the mine
waste of Johannesburg is now an accepted fact (Truswell, 1970, pp. 38-39). Less well-
known are the health impacts of radiation on near-mine communities;
There are 6 000 ownerless, derelict and abandoned mines nationwide and some 600
in the province alone (Council for Geoscience, 2017), and the biggest contributor to

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 the solid waste stream in South Africa is mining waste (77%), followed by pulverised
fuel ash (8%), agricultural waste (6%), urban waste (5%) and sewage sludge (4%)
(Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa, 2017);
Legacy issue. The problem in South Africa is that even after banning asbestos in 2008,
various authors are still arguing that the asbestos exposure in Soweto is not so bad
and low; and
In the case of dust surveillance, the question arises: why do we find bucket systems,
instead of more accurate electronic systems deployed in densely populated, poor and
marginalised communities living in and around mine dumps in South Africa? The
industry will claim that the electronic systems are too expensive, but such systems are
recommended for the proper collection of data.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to the Department of Mineral Resources and

Mining Companies regarding water, waste and asbestos
The following must be monitored and corrected by mining companies and, where necessary,
assisted by government:
Unfenced, un-signposted and unsecured mine waste, particularly slimes/tailings
accessible to the unknowing public;
Informal settlers residing on abandoned mine sites;
People stripping radioactive materials from abandoned mine sites and uranium
processing plants and selling them to scrap metal dealers;
People using tailings sand as a building mix for concrete, cement and plaster to build
houses;
Dust blown into the air from slimes/tailings dams and people inhaling or ingesting the
dust;
Runoff of mine water from tailings dams or seepage into ground water;
All plants can absorb radioactive substances from the soil in which they grew. If fruits,
vegetables or other plants are consumed as food, they also get into the human body;
Decay of naturally occurring and mine deposited uranium into radon gas in houses
and buildings.
All ownerless, derelict and abandoned mines adjacent to the researched townships
must be identified, and the owners should be held responsible for tailings, dust,
radiation and water pollution;
Effective remedial steps must be taken by mining companies to contain and
ameliorate the effects of the solid waste stream. Local government needs to monitor
sewage disposal by mines and to implement corrective action;
Oversights regarding the management of mining TWFs must be corrected by mining
companies, and public awareness projects must be instituted and presented by them;
Asbestos that was used in the construction of buildings must be replaced with
government-agreed upon cladding; and

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 Electronic dust surveillance systems should be installed by mines for the proper
measuring of dust emissions in the researched townships.

8.6 Communities, Civil Society, Education and Faith-Based Organisations

8.6.1 Summary of findings on community awareness

The research has found that, except for Riverlea, community awareness is low and that
structures for raising awareness are limited. Furthermore, the larger parts of the
communities are ignorant about the hazards associated with mining.

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations regarding education and awareness programmes

to communities, civil society, education and faith-based organisations
That awareness raising programmes based on the findings of this research be facilitated by
the community monitors of the Bench Marks Foundation.

8.7 The Media

Bench Marks Foundation recommendations to public and private media

We call on all media to cover mine impact, health and safety stories diligently and to report
truthfully about the true cost of mining, in particular, its impact on poor mining communities.
National water sovereignty and security and the health and well-being of residents living in
near mine communities depend on media scrutiny and public awareness from such scrutiny.

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APPENDIX 1: SOWETO HEALTH STUDY QUESTIONNAIRE
Question1: How old are you?
Age X
Younger than 20 1
20- 29 2
30- 39 3
40 49 4
50 59 5
60 69 6
70 and older 7

Question 2: What is your gender?

Gender X
Male 1
Female 2

Question 3: In which area are you residing?

AREA X
Diepkloof 1
Meadowlands 2
Riverlea 3
Snake Park 4

Question 4: How long have you lived in this area?

PERIOD X
Less than 5 years 1
5 9 years 2
10-20 years 3
All your life 4

Question 5: How would you describe your dwelling?

TYPE OF DWELLING X
Shack/Zozo 1
Backyard room 2
RDP House 3
Two Roomed House 4
Three or more roomed house 5

Question 6: Does your house have an asbestos roof?

X
Yes 1
No 2

Question 7: How many people live in your household?

NUMBER X
1 person 1
2 persons 2
3 persons 3
4 persons 4

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5 persons 5
6 persons 6
7 persons 7
More than 7 8

Question 8: When was the last time that either you as an adult or anyone else in your household
needed healthcare?
WHEN X
In the last 30 days 1
Between 1 month and less than 1 year ago 2
Between 1 year and less than 2 years ago 3
Between 2 years and less than 3 years ago 4
Between 3 years and less than 5 years ago 5
More than 5 years ago 6

Question 9: Who was the last person who needed healthcare in your household?
WHO X
Yourself 1
Your husband/wife 2
Your mother 3
Your father 4
Your sister 5
Your brother 6
Your son 7
Your daughter 8
Your aunt 9
Your uncle 10
Your grandfather 11
Your grandmother 12
Other 13

Question 10: Thinking of the last time you [or someone in your household] needed to see a
healthcare provider who could treat your condition, how many healthcare providers are there
around in your area who you could choose from?

(Number)__________________________________________________________________________

Question 11: Which reason best describes why you [or someone from your household] last needed
healthcare?
REASON X
High fever 1
Severe diarrhoea 2
Cough 3
Sinusitis 4
Asthma 5
Tuberculosis (TB) 6
Silicosis 7
Cancer 8
HIV/Aids 9
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) 10
Eczema (Skin lesions/Itching) 11

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REASON X
Optical (Eye problems) 12
Immunization 13
Antenatal consultation 14
Family planning 15
Childbirth 16
Dental care 17
Arthritis 18
Heart disease 19
Bodily injury 20
Minor surgery 21
Other (Specify) 22

Question 12: Which reason best describes why you [or someone from your household] needs
healthcare?
ILLNESS Self Husband/Wife Father Mother Uncle Aunt Son Daughter
High fever 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Severe diarrhoea 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cough 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Sinusitis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Asthma 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Tuberculosis (TB) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Silicosis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cancer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
HIV/Aids 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Sexually Transmitted 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Infections (STI)
Eczema (Skin 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
lesions/itching)
Optical (Eye problems) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Immunization 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Childbirth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Dental care 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Arthritis 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Heart disease 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Bodily injury 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Minor surgery 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Other (Specify) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Question 13: Generally, do you think that any of the above mentioned conditions affected you or
members of your household, are caused by mining activities (past or present)?
Yes 1
No 2
Not Sure 3

Question 14: In your experience of the mining activities, near or around your area, do they
Do they Not at all Maybe Definitely
Pollute the air 1 2 3
Pollute the water 1 2 3
Bring in migrant workers 1 2 3

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Contribute to xenophobia 1 2 3
Provide jobs for local people 1 2 3
Rehabilitate its operations 1 2 3
Bring in Zama-Zamas 1 2 3
Cause traffic problems 1 2 3
The mine is a good neighbour 1 2 3

Question 15: Do you or any members of your household smoke?

1.Self 2.Husband/Wife 3.Father 4.Mother 5.Uncle 6.Aunt 7.Son 8.Daughter
Yes 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
No 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Question 15: If you or anyone else in your household smokes, how many cigarettes are smoked in
a day?
____________________

Question 16: Do you use any of the following forms of energy in your household?
Energy Source Yes No
1.Electricity 1 2
2.Coal 1 2
3.Wood 1 2
4.Paraffin 1 2

Question 17: The last time you, or any member of your household, needed healthcare, did you get
healthcare?
X
Yes 1
No 2

Question 18: If your answer was no to Question 17, which reasons best explain why you, or your
household member, did not get healthcare? (You may choose more than one option)
REASON X
1.Could not afford the cost of the visit
2.No transport
3.Could not afford the cost of transport
4.The healthcare provider's drugs or equipment are inadequate
5.The healthcare provider's skills are inadequate
6.You were previously badly treated
7.Could not take time off work or had other commitments
8.You did not know where to go
9.You thought you were not sick enough
10.You tried but were denied healthcare
11.Other (Specify)

Question 19: When you last needed healthcare, where did you get care?
WHERE X
At a public clinic, excluding an overnight stay 1
At a public hospital where you stayed overnight 2
At a mine hospital where you stayed overnight 3
At a mine clinic, excluding an overnight stay 4
At a private hospital where you stayed overnight 5

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WHERE X
At private clinic where you stayed overnight 6
At Home 7

Question 20: Who provided you with the healthcare that you required? (Choose one option only).
TYPE X
Medical Doctor 1
Psychiatrist 2
Nurse 3
Midwife 4
Dentist 5
Optician 6
Physiotherapist 7
Traditional healer 8
Other (Specify) 9

Question 21: The last time you, or a household member, sought medical care, did the healthcare
provider prescribe any medicine for you or a member of your household?
X
Yes 1
No 2

Question 22: If the answer to Question 22 was yes, of the medicines that were prescribed for you
or your household member, how many of them were you able to get?
AMOUNT X
All of them 1
Most 2
Some 3
Very few 4
None of them 5

Question 23: Which reason best explains why you, or the member of your household, did not get
all the medicines you were prescribed?
REASON X
Could not afford 1
Could not find all medicines 2
Did not believe all the medicines were needed 3
Started to feel better 4
Already had some medicines at home 5
Other 6

Question 24: How would you rate the way healthcare in your town involves you in deciding what
services it provides and where it provides them?
RATING X
Excellent 1
Good 2
Satisfactory 3
Poor 4
Dont know 5

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Question 25: Are you, or any member of your household disabled?
X
Yes 1
No 2

Question 26: If your answer was yes to Question 25, who is disabled?
WHO X
Yourself 1
Your Husband/Wife 2
Your Mother 3
Your Father 4
Your Sister 5
Your Brother 6
Your Son 7
Your Daughter 8
Your Aunt 9
Your Uncle 10
Your Grandfather 11
Your Grandmother 12
Other (Specify) 13

Question 27: During the past year, did you provide help to a relative or friend (adult or child),
because this person has a long-term physical or mental illness or disability or is getting old and
weak?
Who X
Yes, for a person living in the same household 1
Yes, for a person living in a separate household 2
No one 3

Question 28: Please tell me the kind of care you provided to this person(s)?
How did you help? X
1.You helped with personal care, such as going to the toilet, washing, getting dressed, or eating
2.You helped with medical care, like changing bandages and giving medicines
3.You helped with household activities such as meal preparation, shopping, cleaning, laundry
4.You watched over them since their behaviour can be upsetting or dangerous to themselves
or others
5.You helped them to get around outside the home

Question 29: How important is "respectful treatment" for you at a medical facility by staff towards
you?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

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Question 30: How important is respectful treatment to you by the mining corporations
operating near or around your community?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

Question 31: How important is consultation with you and your community by the mining
corporations operating near or around your community?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

Question 32: How often do the mining companies near or around your communities consult with
you and your community
X
Always 1
Not so often 2
Sometimes 3
Never 4

Question 33: How important is involvement in decision making about you or your community to
you?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

Question 34: How important is a clean, healthy and safe environment to you?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

Question 35: How important is clear/understandable, transparent and honest communication to

you?
Would you say it is: X
Extremely important 1
Very important 2
Moderately important 3
A little important 4
Not important at all 5

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APPENDIX 2: EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN COMMUNITY
STRUCTURES AND THE CORPORATIONS INVOLVED, THE STATE AND
OTHER ROLE-PLAYERS

LETTER 1: CENTRAL RAND GOLD

CENTRAL RAND GOLD (PTY) LTD

ATTENTION: BHEKI MDAKANE & TRACEY GEDDES

Dear Sir and Madam,

RE: MINING RELATED MATTERS IN THE RIVERLEA AREA WHERE MINING IS CURRENTLY BEING
CARRIED OUT BY CRG UNDER MINING RIGHT GP 30/5/1/2 (140) MR

We refer to the above.

1. Subsequent to the community meeting we were placed in possession of your Social and
Labour Plan. We have studied the document, and it is apparent that the document
does not address the Riverlea community. Please confirm this.
We are advised that the mine was required to produce a SLP for each and every
mining operation that it conducts in the respective areas and are in the process of
seeking legal advice on your failure to include Riverlea in the SLP and not one
blanket SLP covering all operations in Gauteng.
2. It has recently come to our attention that CRG is in the process of selling its local assets
to Hiria Group Co. Media reports indicate that a memorandum of understanding has
been concluded and the parties sought to conclude the sale by 31 March 2015. Please
confirm whether this sale has in fact proceeded and if so the effective date of the sale.
Note that the Hina Group cannot proceed with operations without community
consultation.
We trust that any sale of the business agreement would disclose the issues relating
to the Riverlea community and the mining operations therein.
3. We require confirmation that the mining operations in Riverlea will cease to
commence. If so, please advise if you have prepared a Mine Closure Plan. If there is
indeed a closure plan, the community needs to have access to it as it directly affects
our safety and well-being.
4. As you are aware, we are concerned about the environmental impact of the mining. To
this end, please provide us with a copy of the Environmental Impact Assessment as well
as the Environmental Management Plan and any other environmental assessments
conducted in relation to the mining in Riverlea.
5. We were further advised that CRG would attend to the rehabilitation of the area. Kindly
confirm by way of a written report; the manner in which the rehabilitation would take
place and period when it would be completed.

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6. It has further come to our attention that the use of water for the mining operations
may have been illegal. Kindly provide us with a copy of the water license issued in
respect of the mining operations and/or agreement concluded with the school for use
of their water use. Kindly also provide us with a copy of your waste management plan
and license as these are also legal requirements for any mining operation.
7. Please note we are concerned with the presence of illegal miners at the mine shafts
previously operated by you. There is no visible security and the illegal miners have
taken advantage of same.
We demanded you place adequate security to prevent the illegal mining. We have
addressed a letter to the local police and we request that your private security firm
work in conjunction with SAPS to prevent the illegal mining.
You will appreciate that the illegal mining places the community at risk. There are
many reports of violent conduct by the illegal miners above the fact that their
conduct is illegal.
Please advise when we expect more stringent security measures to be put in place.
8. We previously advised that the failure to properly secure the mining area has exposed
danger to the learners of the primary school.
You have not acceded to our request to have additional measures put in place to
ensure the safety of the learners. If we do not receive an adequate action we will
address the matter with the Department of Education.

Kindly respond as a matter of urgency to the issues raised herein.

Thank you very much

_________________________
RIVERLEA COMMUNITY FORUM
MINING COMMITTEE
(CHAIRMAN)
14th May 2015

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 MINUTES OF DRD MEETING WITH COMMUNITY:

To: Wayne Swanepoel Date: 05 November 2015

From: Nestus Bredenhann Proj#: ERG3619
Meeting Minutes for the Riverlea Community Forum
Date: Tuesday, 22 September 2015
RE:
Time: 17:00 19:00
Venue: Ergo Crown

Attendees
Stakeholder attendance is set out below in Table 1.

Table 1:Stakeholder attendance

NAME DESIGNATION COMPANY
Reece Rosenberg (RR) Chairperson Riverlea Community Forum
Robin Wheatley (RW) Member Riverlea Community Forum
Member Riverlea Community Forum
Charles van der Merwe (CM)
Mark Kayter (MK) Member Riverlea Community Forum
Wayne Swanepoel (WS) SM: H&SE Ergo Mining
AbiotKekana (AK) Transformation Ergo Mining
Louis Kleynhans (LK) Environmental Ergo Mining
Greg Ovens (GO) Environmental Ergo Mining
Nestus Bredenhann (NB) Consultant Digby Wells Environmental

Welcome, Introduction and Presentation

The Riverlea Community Forum (RCF) meeting was formally started at approximately 17:15
by the facilitator, WS Swanepoel (WS). Attendance was kept in the form of a signed
attendance register. All attendees had the opportunity to introduce themselves together
with declaring their designation and/or role.

As introduction to the formal presentation WS provided an overview of the activities leading

up to this RCF meeting being undertaken. He also stipulated that a good working relationship
needs to continue between Ergo Mining (Ergo) and the RCF, hence continued engagement
needs to be formalised.

GO Ovens (GO) continued with a formal presentation, providing information on: summary of
actions requested for by RCF; location of the Crown Mining Right GP 184 MR; exiting
environmental licences; mitigation measures currently being implemented at operations; and
social initiatives underway and/or planned. The meeting was closed by WS and adjourned at
approximately 18:30.

136
Table 2: Comments raised at the RCF meeting
NAME COMMENT ACTION
WS Ergo has a good working relationship Cllr Douglas and we work
together from time to time on various matters.
Ergo is prepared to share information, show good faith, and do not
want to be measured according to other mines in the area.
Ergo has worked in good faith with the RCF and has been
transparent when dealing with the RCF.
RR Thanked everyone for having the RCF at the meeting.
RCF requested to view various documents more than once from
Ergo; asking this from the DMR does not work.
RCF acts on behalf of community (had meeting yesterday also).
WS Quick introductions of new people as done (GO and NB).
Went through objectives of the meeting.
Ergo seeks to sustain the RCF relationship through open dialogue
and address requests where possible.
Information provided to RCF is done in good faith (not wanting to
see that it is used against Ergo).
Ergo provide copy of the PowerPoint to RCF. LK / WS
Ergo has an open door policy for engagement and it is considered to LK / WS
undertake a quarterly meeting.
RR Will appreciate to set a date for such meetings going forward. LK / WS
GO Provided content on the map of Riverlea and associated mining
rights.
Dump 382 almost completely mined.
Mining is completed at the Mooifontein dump.
MK Who does the mined-out property belong to?
GO I-prop.
RR Which sections will be mined by Central Rand Gold (CRG)?
GO Provided content of the various licences / EMPs.
RR Can we have the sampling data?
WS Yes. Meeting is undertaken in good faith and transparency is LK / GO
required. Information provided cant be used against Ergo, and
certain information can only be made available through the
regulators.
What will the information be used for?
RR Bench Marks is assisting RCF to understand the documents and
associated information; we dont have the required knowledge to do
WS so by ourselves.
We can possibly have a number of meetings until the data is
LK understood.
Ergo can also assist by explaining how monitoring is done e.g., dust
buckets placed within the area.
GO Some audits, as required by regulations, are required to be done
every second year, but Ergo does them every year as good practice.
Independent consultants conduct the audits or assist to get these
done.

137
NAME COMMENT ACTION
RR Some reports deemed for the DMR are quarterly; the last one was
June 2015, when is the next report?
GO The next report will be submitted very soon, since it has been
completed.
GO Explained the various Air Quality mitigation measures.
RR Where are the water tankers usually used? On top of the dumps?
LK Normally access roads are used to access the dumps, and vegetation
is used on top of the TSFs.
LK Ergo spray where vegetation is required with a green substance.
RR What is it made out of? Is it chemicals?
GO It is made from pine bark.
RR Are the sprayers made of metal; are you still having issues with
theft?
LK Theft is a concern and sprayers are removed when a working day is
done.
RR What is the distance between the zig-zag netting?
LK It is 3m and can go up to 10m.
RR Is it placed on top of the dump?
LK Yes.
WS Netting is done by Soweto community members sections are being
done between communities, since Ergo cant do everything for
everyone.
Some of the disgruntled communities burn the netting.
RR The Riverlea community can be used since the TSFs are located on
our side of the N1 and we are more affected.
WS Ergo is trying to add value to more than one community by allowing
work and development support.
AK In some areas the communities mobilize to get the work done
quicker which has an impact on the allocated budget (more people
work on the job).
Previous experience with community representatives indicate that
they did not provide accurate information to the workers and in
many cases communities are not properly represented as a result of
insufficient information.
RR The community questions the RCF since people are directly affected,
especially those living close to the TSFs.
We understand that Ergo has many challenges around the
employment between various communities.
RR Will vegetation grow back if it is burnt down?
GO Yes, it is self-sustainable and water is required for 18 months as part
of the process.
RR Has TSFs been vegetated with plants or seeds?
LK Vegetation has all been planted as seeds.
MK Are there any plans to re-mine theses TSFs?
GO Consideration was given, but not for the next 7 to 8 years.

138
NAME COMMENT ACTION
RR Some TSF areas are very green.
GO Yes, what Ergo uses to vegetate the TSFs is self-sustainable.
GO Provided information on the dust monitoring results and data that was
done.
RR Last year near Soccer City there was a white blanket of dust and this
affected Riverlea.
GO Ergo is investigating to utilise cleaned water from Goudkoppies for
rehabilitation. Water is a very scarce resource since it is being used for
communities as well.
Pipelines run within existing servitudes and will not affect
communities.
WS Provided details on Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives
already undertaken and also what is intended to be done e.g. to
reestablish the Gas shack initiative (which could have been done
better).
RR When were these initiatives done?
AK They were done last year.
RR Were schools in Riverlea earmarked for the school uniforms project?
AK Yes, Ergo also targeted some schools in Soweto for this project.
RR We had challenges last year with the Department of Social
Development and the initiative had to be stopped.
RR Is Westbury close to Riverlea? (for the refurbishing of the computer
facility).
WS For the Secondary School isnt this done by the Department of
Education?
Ergo rather targets CSI projects that will remain sustainable.
MK Is the facility maintained by Ergo?
WS No, Ergo handed over everything to the community since it is
important to do the right thing and it is challenging to find the correct
people.
RR Some people are greedy and take money earmarked for development;
it needs to be maintained. The approach to these needs to be to
mitigate corruption.
AK Unfortunately, not all requests can be adhered to; Ergo have to select
those that can be representative of communities.
RR Not sure why the Council were involved with the Fun Day and not the
Coloured Foundation.
WS Ergo does not want to create a divide between or within communities;
harmony needs to be created rather. Requests are being looked at and
are considered e.g. Ergo is currently considering a request from Council
for benches and tables.
Ergo wants to re-establish the Gas Shack initiative to change peoples
lives through empowerment and train people on how to manage a new
business (with the support of the RCF). Also, to provide gas bottles.

139
NAME COMMENT ACTION
Ergo will ensure there is a transparent process in place. In addition,
Ergo wants to undertake a feasibility study to understand if the concept
will be feasible (the information will be shared with RCF).
RR Agrees that the Gas Shack initiative originally was done incorrectly and
created an incorrect perception of the projects intention.
There are many households and illegal structures that will benefit, but
the misperception created challenges; at a previous public meeting
people felt no for the initiative to continue.
WS The survey done previously was done incorrectly and Ergo wants to do
this correctly this time around in order to allocate gas bottles and
RR stoves to the correct people (not as a free handout, but rather to RR
change the lives of people).
Not all Riverlea people can afford the gas bottles and stoves because
of poverty or unemployment. We will speak to the community again to
gauge acceptance levels and will provide feedback to Ergo. We want to
get the correct people for the Gas Shack initiative.
WS Ergo wants to manage the Gas Shack initiative in consultation with
community.
MK Sludge from TSFs; where is it taken to?
GO It is taken to the super dump in Brakpan.
RR Why dont Ergo pump the sludge back into the underground
compartments?
GO It is difficult to determine the impact since the majority of
underground mines in Johannesburg are interconnected.
RR The property underneath the TSF is almost ready, what will be done
with it?
GO The relevant authorities need to come together and decide on the
preferred approach for the land use.
RR What is the responsibility of Ergo, since they contaminated the land?
GO It is not contaminated; Ergo needs to get a closure certificate from the
DMR. Thereafter the local municipality will need to rezone area and
determine the subsequent land use.
MK RCF also wants to be open and transparent, and yet we dont
understand mining and the associated legislation. We need to answer
to the community and want to do so with sufficient information.
RR Thank you for being willing to talk to the RCF.
Can ongoing meetings be undertaken Riverlea? (since we want to all
WS RCF representatives present) and having the proposed meeting at 6pm
will be better than 5pm. WS
WS Yes, this can be investigated and agreed upon.
Will we get a copy of the notes of the meeting? WS /
Yes, this will be provided. NB

140
8 March 2016

DEPARTMENT OF MINERAL RESOURCES: REGIONAL OFFICE, GAUTENG

Mineralia Building, Cnr De Korte and De Beer Street, BRAAMFONTEIN, 2017

Ms Mmadikeledi Malebe REGIONAL MANAGER GAUTENG

[email protected]
[email protected]

Mr Khayalethu Matrose DIRECTOR GENERALS OFFICE

[email protected]

Funwell Nkuna PRINCIPAL INSPECTOR

[email protected]

Diphoko Modiselle
[email protected]

Refilwe Motau
[email protected]

Dear Madams and Sirs, URGENT

VIOLATION OF NUMEROUS ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND FAILURE TO IMPLEMENT THE SOCIAL

LABOUR PLAN AND OTHER KEY REQUIREMENTS FOR A MINING LICENCE UNDER MINING RIGHT
GP 30/5/1/2 (140) MR

1. The above-captioned matter refers.

2. We require your office's assistance to launch an investigation into the mining
operations conducted by Central Rand Gold Ltd (CRG) in the Riverlea area.
3. Whilst our Forum does not consist of mining experts, it is abundantly clear that CRG has
violated the law in respect of the mining operations in Riverlea.
4. Firstly, the community of Riverlea has not benefitted or is even included in the Social
and Labour Plan (SLP) submitted by CRG when applying for the license. The SLP does
not even mention the area in which the mining activities take place.
5. Secondly, the mining operations proximity to the primary school is questionable. The
distance between the mining operations and the school is less than that prescribed by
legislation.
6. Thirdly, you will note on inspection that there are insufficient safety mechanisms to
prevent the learners from injuring themselves. There is no private security in the area
employed by CRG.

141
7. Fourthly, CRG utilized the primary schools water during its operation without obtaining
the necessary permits for water use.
8. Fifthly, the mining has caused damage to George Harrison Memorial Park which is a
heritage site. The site is destroyed as a result of CRGs conduct.
9. The surrounding area has become a dumping site due to the state in which CRG
abandoned the area.
10. We have requested CRG to provide us with the Mine Closure Plan however they have
failed to provide same.
11. Needless to say that there is health issues arising from the dust created by the mining.
12. We are aware of a High Court application launched by CRG in September 2011 to set
aside the decision by the DMR to cancel CRGs mining rights.
13. We are further aware that the matter was settled in December 2011.We respectfully
submit that if an investigation is conducted into the mining affairs of CRG, it will be
determined that nothing has changed since that date.
14. In fact we submit that there are further contraventions by CRG.
15. The conduct by CRG clearly takes advantage of the poor and seemingly powerless
community of Riverlea. Their disregard for the law and the surrounding area is
indicative of their lack of compassion and respect for the Riverlea Community.
16. At all material times CRG has sought to evade its responsibilities in terms of the law.
17. In the circumstances, we humbly request that your local office commence an urgent
investigation into the conduct of CRG regarding the mining operations in Riverlea.
18. It is further of utmost importance that CRG provide the DMR and the Riverlea with a
written undertaking that it will rehabilitate the land in the near future.
19. Kindly advise as a matter of urgency whether you require any further information to
commence the investigation against CRG.
20. Should you require any further information regarding the above, kindly contact the
writer hereof.

Thank you very much.

___________________
RIVERLEA COMMUNITY FORUM
CHAIRPERSON
REECE ROSENBERG

142
 11th Floor, Khotso House,
62 Marshall Street, Marshalltown, Johannesburg, South Africa 2017
PO Box 62538, Marshalltown 2107, South Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 832 1743/2

Fax: +27 (0)11 832 1750

[email protected]
www.bench-marks.org.za