Speaker
1: |
The
old miners. Hard rock Miners. To the shaft house we must go. Oil bottles. |
Robin
Smith: |
[inaudible],
once vibrant and productive, it closed four years ago. All that is left of it
now is this rubbish dump where retrenched miners come to scavenge for scrap
metal. |
Speaker
1: |
On
the line boys. Drill your holes and stand in line. Can't you feel the rock
dust in your lungs? It'll cut down a miner when he is still young. Two years
and the silicone cysts take home and I feel like I'm dying from mining for
gold. Yes I feel like I'm dying for mining ... |
Speaker
3: |
[foreign
language] |
Robin
Smith: |
These
old miners are part of the legacy of mining. But when the gold mines on the
[inaudible] closed down they also left something else. A multitude of old
mine dumps. And when the wind blows so does the fine yellow dust. |
Ururu: |
If
you living next to the mine dump and during the wind season, it's just hell.
Most of the resident in [inaudible] does not have a problem with the mine
dumps. It settle in their houses. If it's really windy everybody closes the
windows. They cannot do their washing, right? So it's almost similar like a
war situation. |
Speaker
5: |
And
you can't go into town because when you are from town you are facing the
dust. |
Speaker
3: |
The
small particles go through the ceiling and it's invisible. But the reality of
the metal is that you actually eating it and inhaling it every second. |
Speaker
5: |
It
feels like something was just fine going in your face, and on every inch of your
body. You will just see your bodies itching after it, if you allergic you
will see with a small rash ... |
Speaker
3: |
The
dust has accumulated on the ceilings over years, if we can take you up there
you can actually see what you understand it to be. The late mining magnot, mister Oppenheimer, when he left his position as
chairmen of Angolo American he said and I quote,
"There is no doubt that when leave this part of the earth, we will have
left a great civilization but at the same time we agree that we have left
deep and dangerous old [inaudible], and huge mountains of mine towns, that
are not really [inaudible]... |
Speaker
6: |
Without
mining, South Africa would be a really different place to where it is now,
and yet I hate to think what it would be like, because mining is everything
to this country. The gold that you'd extract, on average, amounts to about
eight or so grammes per tonne. |
Robin
Smith: |
Everything
that you see in this rock ends up in a tailing dam, including all the pyrites
and minerals. |
Speaker
6: |
You
can see very clearly the heavy mineral concentrations. Mainly pyrite, but
also with nickel, cobalt and zinc bearing minerals. |
Robin
Smith: |
There
are many other minerals in the rock. Arsenic. Lead. Uranium. Barium. Promium and Milanium. When it
rains, they dissolve into the water and wash down into the streams and
rivers, finally ending up in the drinking water. Even though this water looks
clean, it's heavily polluted. |
Speaker
6: |
And
if mines are breaking the law or not doing this properly then they got to
give it time to sort it out, and if they can't then they're gonna be closed down. |
Robin
Smith: |
Closing
them down might not be the answer. The law says that mine dumps must be
rehabilitated, but when this isn't done properly there's nothing to stop the
dust blowing on them. Much like water, this dust contains many pollutants.
Clinging to the tiny particles, they enter the lungs where they dissolve
almost immediately into the bloodstream. Sometimes the dust particles are so
small they go straight into the lungs, causing them to harden. |
|
This
can lead to shortness of breath, asthma, chronic bronchitis and increase the
risk of TB. |
Ururu: |
For
years we've been knowing this dumps as cyanide. Even when the kids go and
play on top there, the parents say "Don't go and play on the cyanide,
it's poisonous." So we grew up with this kind of awareness. |
Robin
Smith: |
This
is Kharisu Township, near Creullers
Dawn. Here the community begin fighting for the rehabilitation of their mine
dump in the early eighties. |
Ururu: |
It
took us about four, five years to go about owning one. |
Robin
Smith: |
Ownership
of mine dumps is a complex issue. When the community finally tracked down the
owners, the discovered that the dump had just been sold. Frustrated and
disillusioned, they decided to get help, which came in the form of Ellen Nickles, and advocate from the legal resources centre. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
That's
why they came to us in the first place, I think. When they just hit dead ends
everywhere, where they couldn't get information, when they kept getting told
that, "No. Hang on, hang on, the company's being sold." |
|
Okay.
I wonder if I shouldn't take this file. I think so. So we investigated the
matter. We found that the mine dump was completely rehabilitated, uncovered.
It was a just a heap of sand which was very susceptible to wind. And we also
found that the law was actually fairly straightforwards
on the point. The Minerals Act expects mines to rehabilitate the surfaces of
their works, and that would include the slime stands or tailing stands. |
Funky
Music: |
Funky
Music. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Hi
Itza! |
Itza: |
Hi
Ellen. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
(Foreign
Language) |
Itza: |
(Foreign
Language) |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Thanks. |
Robin
Smith: |
Ellen's
involvement with environmental law came about by accident. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
I
think, the passion was obviously there, that's what I figure out. If only I
knew how to combine these things and these things that I know I like and
enjoy, then I would have the ultimate job. And the ultimate job just fell in
my lap! I'm very grateful for that. |
Ururu: |
We
cannot say as the [inaudible] that mining is going to do anything positive
for the wellbeing of the community around here. It has just left us with a
legacy of environmental degradation, that's all that we can say about mining.
It really is, really. Really. |
|
It's
only when we became aware that there is law, which we can use as a tool to
enforce the mine dumps to address our problems. That we then starting really
acting on that part of the issue. |
Robin
Smith: |
And
act they did. Once they discovered that the dump was owned by African
consolidated mines, they took legal action. But, before the case could get to
court, they reached a settlement. With great fanfare, the owners agreed to
rehabilitate the dump. |
Speaker
10: |
I
think it's a very important day for us to sign this agreement because we are
committed to environmental management and the rehabilitation of the mining
activities itself. But our main view is to give this tailing facility over to
the community at the stage once it's rehabilitated as a recreation facility. |
Robin
Smith: |
Now,
more than a year and half later, there is little evidence that anything
lasting has been done. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
The
topsoil layer is really a very thin layer. 200 millilitres of topsoil will
erode over a fairly short period of time and would start allowing dust to
come through that again, so for a very short term measure it did help. Medium
to long term, it's not going to work. Much more is necessary. |
Ururu: |
We
are absolutely not happy. |
Speaker
5: |
Since
that time, and even now we don't know anything. We don't know, are they
coming or not coming? We're still waiting. |
Robin
Smith: |
When
special assignment approached African Consolidated mines, they declined to
comment. For the Kharisu community, it was back to
square one. |
Ururu: |
So
the mine owners are busy getting away this thing. |
Robin
Smith: |
Kharisu isn't the only place where mining has left behind a
trail of pollution. Several other communities in Hau
Ting face similar problems. Large, rehabilitate mine dumps with little or
nothing done to stop the dust or the polluted water running off them. Mining
has caused a huge problem all along the [inaudible]. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
The
mining belt runs from west to east, comes through the centre of the greater
Johannesburg area. To the northern area you've got residential areas, which
traditionally have mostly been white areas. And then to the south of the mining
belt, you've got residential areas, including the large [inaudible] area,
which have traditionally been black areas. |
|
And
the predominant wind comes from the northwest, so the wind direction is
something like that. |
Robin
Smith: |
This
means that the dust only effects the poorer communities to the south. When
Ellen realised this she decided to put together one giant court case. She
wanted to take all of these mining companies to court for not rehabilitating
their dumps. She'd used the same laws she tried with the Kharisu
community, but this time it would be different. This time, there'd be no
quick settlement. This time she was going to take the matter, all the way to
court. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
The
consequences for them is that they would get a court order, ordering them to
comply with the law, and if they still choose not to comply with the court
order they would face contempt of court preceding that could culminate In
managing directors ending up in jail. |
|
In
Kharisu we realised that even though some measures
have been taken to resolve the immediate problem on the [inaudible] tailings
dam, they still sat with a huge dust problem. We couldn't figure out where it
came from. And then we realised there's another dam a few kilometres further
which is even bigger and is also upwind. That particular dam is very bad.
It's huge, it's high, it's big. It's completely unrehabilitated. There are no
measures on that thing to curb dust pollution. |
|
And
it just blows over that Kharisu area, like a cloud
of dust on windy days. |
Robin
Smith: |
This
particular dump is owned by a company called Derbin
Rudiper Deep, or DRD. We asked them about
rehabilitation. |
Speaker
11: |
If
you're interpretation of rehabilitation is vegetation, of putting vegetation
on it and vegetating it, no, it has not been done. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
The
mine has an obligation to rehabilitate and they've got to do the
rehabilitation in such a way that the dust problem is sorted out. |
|
I
mean, I'm asking you for specific details here, because from what I can see,
come August. Come the winds, there's gonna be dust. |
Speaker
11: |
There
will be dust and we recognise the fact there's going to be dust. I mean,
we're not resolving ourselves of our responsibility. We own those dumps, we
have a responsibility to rehabilitate them. |
Robin
Smith: |
This
responsibility is entrenched in law, but it costs a lot so some mines try to
avoid it. The law also says that all mining companies must submit an
environmental management plan to the government. This gives specific details
of their plans to rehabilitate tailings dams, or mine dumps, like this one in
Stillfontein. |
|
When
it's approved by the Department of Minerals and Energy it becomes legally
binding. The mines then must stick to what they've said they'll do. |
Speaker
11: |
These
dams are fairly distanced from the Vaal River, the other complex, the buttles complex, is much closer to the Vaal River. |
Speaker
12: |
Yeah
we also take that into consideration in our assessment. Are there any
monitoring burrows at this complex? |
Speaker
11: |
Yes
there are a number of monitoring burrows all across [crosstalk]. |
Robin
Smith: |
As
it's supposed to, DRD has submitted it's
environmental plan, which has been approved by government. This makes it
legal, and binding. |
Speaker
11: |
We
will continue with our rehabilitation programme as we've planned, as we've
scheduled. Irrespective of if a court case takes place or not. We're not
going to be forced by a court case to rehabilitate. |
Robin
Smith: |
They
say they're sticking to their plan, but are they? |
Speaker
11: |
Look,
that is where our ordered approach comes in, in terms of legation 518 of the
Minerals Act and Regulation published in the terms of the Minerals Act. EMP,
monitoring and performance assessments have to be done. |
Robin
Smith: |
The
mines are monitored to see if they're sticking to the agreements. The
findings of these assessments are then presented at meetings, like this one
at the DRD head office in Stillfontein. One the one
side, government officials. And on the other, mine management. |
Speaker
13: |
Also
pick up the different sources of [inaudible] and we can go out and about and
we can show it. We see it as a priority one story that needs to be looked at. |
Speaker
11: |
We
know that some of the bellows are problematic and we need to do something
about it. And we will look at what we can do. |
Speaker
13: |
No,
I think your other issue is going off the prevention of seepage. |
Speaker
11: |
No,
I think we have to ignore this effect that there is seepage. We've got away
from the fact that there is seepage, given the geology of the area as well. |
Robin
Smith: |
Despite
these assessments there are still problems. The government just doesn't have
the capacity to police the agreements properly, or the will to punish
infringements. Fines as small as a thousand rand do little to help the
communities living near these dumps. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
The
one solution for the community is to have full time lawyers on the case, to
follow up and each and every settlement agreement or other agreement reached. |
Robin
Smith: |
The
other solution is to force the Department the Minerals and Energy Affairs to
do their job of enforcing the law. The only way to do this is to take them to
court as well. |
Ururu: |
Definitely.
It's the responsibility to, of the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs,
to enforce the laws that parliament have passed. It is their responsibility,
otherwise that law, it's useless. |
Speaker
14: |
I
mean, the Minerals are always quotes the Aesop story, of killing the goose
that lays the golden egg. Mining companies in this country, first in the
past, and even currently are still laying the golden egg. They're the goose!
So you need to maintain a balance between trying to get them to try and act
responsibly but at the same time, not pushing them and squeezing them like
Aesop did, because killing them is not going to do us any good. |
Speaker
11: |
At
the moment we're looking at dust suppression methodologies. Just to displace
the dust, but what option do you take? What do you believe? What do you use?
Some areas we are delaying because we're looking at technology options, but
in other areas you can't because of your rehabilitation. You've got to
control the dust, you've got to go manage the water seepage. You're liable. |
|
And
I'm liable because I'm the manager of those mines. So, I hardly ever have a
night where I can sleep without worrying about what's going to happen. |
Robin
Smith: |
In
some places DRD is involved in some innovative programmes, like this one at Stillfontein mine. This project is called Golden Village.
It employs some of the miners retrained four years ago and youth from the
surrounding townships. The plan is to rehabilitate what's left of this once
bustling mine. |
Ururu: |
At
this point in time we are not basically saying they should compensate for the
health hazard that they've caused, to the [inaudible] people. We're saying,
prevent further damage to our community! |
Robin
Smith: |
It's
just about impossible to prove a direct link to a particular mine dump and a
specific persons illness. Because of this, Ellen is taking another route. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
It's
the common man, and if there's a problem found but I don't want problems
today. I want those people to be in my office as soon as possible. Okay. |
Robin
Smith: |
Sick
of endless delays and excuses, this court case is aimed at getting the dust
problem addressed immediately. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Thanks
Bittle, I owe you. Okay. |
Robin
Smith: |
After
months of laborious preparations the court case is finally coming together.
Affidavits have been prepared and the applicants from Kharisu
have come to Pretoria to sign them. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Hi.
Thanks Ururu, for coming. |
Ururu: |
Hi,
How are you? |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Good
to see you. Well, thanks. |
Ururu: |
Good.
Great. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
And
you guys. |
Ururu: |
Great. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Finally,
your Affidavits are ready. Yes? Hi, how are you? Come, let's go and look with
me. |
Funky
Music: |
Funky
Music. |
Ururu: |
We've
just now returned our Affidavits. We've had several meetings and are coming
to have collected signatures of support, and I must say that not a single
resident has expressed something negative in regard to this [inaudible]
campaign. Everyone's saying we should go on with the [inaudible] as the
supported fleet. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
It's
not as if we're killing the elephants and the lions, we're killing the
people. Because we're polluting the air, it's polluting the ground water,
it's polluting the rivers. And I don't think that cost is really
quantifiable. You could probably work out what the profit was. That was made.
And what kind of boost it gave the economy. But the cost we now have to pay
is huge. |
Robin
Smith: |
Now
that the Affidavits are signed it's a matter of compiling the final documents
and adding the finishing touches, then the court case will be ready. |
Ellen
Rickles: |
Well,
I hope that the papers will be ready and the case will be able to go out and
be launched before my baby arrives. |