INTRO: - Hundred of twenty years of gold mining has turned Western Gauteng into a pollution hot spot. Everyone agrees that the mine dumps must go now there are plans to remove and rework some of Gauteng mines dumps and prompt the resulting waste to new super waste dumps planned for Fochville and Randfontein. But will this really help the environment?

UPS: - VOICER - They are Gauteng’s answer to Table Mountain. Mine dumps, tailings dams, slimes dams call them what you want. They are the legacy of 120 years of gold mining. They are poisonous and they’re everywhere on Gauteng’s West Rand.

PRE-TITLE: SUPER DUMP

UPS: - VOICER - Mariette Liefferink is an activist focusing on the mining pollution of the area.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST - We have at present 8000 ownerless or abandoned mines which are costing the government R100 billion. I may just mention if I say it is costing the government, it is actually costing the taxpayer. Because the taxpayer must pay for pollution they have not caused and didn’t receive benefit of.

UPS: RENE POTGIETER ENVIRONMNENTAL ACTIVIST - This particular watercourse runs through the town of Carletonville. It is used for recreational purposes by a lot of people living in the community, especially the quad bikers. They enjoy it after a storm, it is nice and muddy, you can come and get dirty and have a lot of fun. The problem with this is that further upstream is the DRD site where they are reclaiming a slimes dam. A lot of the slimes that is your uranium, arsenic, sulphates, and a lot of the other nasties that you do get in your slimes, are migrating through this particular canal and down into the Wonderfonteinspruit which lies behind me and which then goes into the sediment and affects the farming communities which are downstream. This particular site that we are standing at now we shouldn’t actually be here. This is a hotspot as identified by the National Nuclear Regulator’s Brenk report, which was done about a year ago. The mining houses, via directive from the National Nuclear Regulator, were instructed to immediately remediate this site and demarcate it so that the public cannot gain access to it.

UPS: - VOICER - The Wonderfonteinspruit and its side streams connect most of the gold-mining towns of Western Gauteng. Due to water discharged by mines and the dust from the tailings dams, parts of the Spruit has become a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST -.It also contains heavy metals, which includes magnesium, aluminium, cadmium which is a human carcinogen cobalt, copper, zinc and also uranium. Uranium, as we all know, has two properties. It is both radioactive, so it has carcinogenic effects or impacts. It also is a toxic so it has a chemical toxicity, which implies nephrotoxicity it affects the kidneys.

UPS: - VOICER - The problem with the West Rand isn’t only that it’s polluted, but that it’s so densely populated. It is difficult to keep the communities and the mines apart. Take for example Donaldson Dam outside of Randfontein. This used to be a popular recreational area. Until mine water was discharged into the dam.

UPS: LAWRENCE VAN DER WALT; CARETAKER: DONALDSON DAM - The mine came twice a day, three times a day and since now every day the people come and take samples of the water.

UPS: - VOICER - Did they tell you what they find in the samples?

UPS: LAWRENCE VAN DER WALT; CARETAKER: DONALDSON DAM - No.

UPS: - VOICER - Did the mines give you any advice about what you should do and what you shouldn’t do with this water?

 UPS: LAWRENCE VAN DER WALT; CARETAKER: DONALDSON DAM - No. They just came, after they found that the water is polluted and they put up signs. And I believe they went to the opposite, put signs, but they’re already removed.

UPS: - VOICER - So, the mines didn’t tell you why they’re putting up the signs?

 UPS: LAWRENCE VAN DER WALT; CARETAKER: DONALDSON DAM - No.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST -

Donaldson Dam has been identified in terms of the Wetlands Report and in terms of the Water Research Commission Report 1095 of 2002, as one of the radioactive areas. The sediment in this area contains radioactivity of approximately 100 to 1000 bequerels per kilogram. The radioactivity is, in other words, within the sediment of the Donaldson Dam. If there is turbulence, such as when cattle drink or children play in the water and the sediment is churned, it will definitely also enter into the water column.

UPS: - VOICER - This is exactly what’s happening. On the other side of Donaldson dam is Bekkersdal’s Tambo Settlement.

UPS: - EMMET SIGWELA; RESIDENT: TAMBO SETTLEMENT - We haven’t seen signboards but the people there telling us no to go into the water. Sometimes kids go into fish.

UPS: - THERESR MOKAY; RESIDENT: TAMBO SETTLEMENT - When we wash our clothes with that water our skin gets painfully dry.

UPS: LAWRENCE VAN DER WALT; CARETAKER: DONALDSON DAM - We allow fishermen to fish on this side. But they’re also informed that they got to use waders to protect them from the water especially when you’re walking in the mud. They got to see that they wear waders. The problem is the people from the opposite they walk in the water, in between the reeds to kill the fish that’s dangerous.

In fact, the water in the Donaldson Dam is so polluted that it shouldn’t be released into the river system. It has to be transported by pipeline.  But this is just one part of the pollution problem facing the region.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST -

The tailings dams were historically placed on unlined foundations. In other words, it would percolate, or seep as I’ve mentioned into the groundwater. Also by means of atmospheric pollution. There will be toxic and radioactive dust fallout. Exactly the same contaminants that you will find in the seepage or percolated water, you will find in the toxic and radioactive dust fallout.

UPS: - VOICER - The law dictates that tailings dams should be barred from the public. Yet, a short tour around Carletonville revealed that many of them are easily accessible. These tailings dams belong to Durban Roodepoort Deep. They were completely open without fences or warning signs. We walked right in and were only noticed because of our camera.

UPS: - SECURITY GUARD - Ma’am can I ask you again to please accompany me to the main office. You have no permission to be on the mine land. If you do not accompany me, I will be you will force me to get the SAPS.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST -

Please do.

UPS: - VOICER - The site also had fresh sinkholes. A DRD spokesman said they do put up signs and fences but these are damaged by vandals and thieves. He said it is DRD policy to clean up tailings spillages and fill in sinkholes as they occur. However, this tailings dam was exposed to the elements and one could actually see the dust entering the water course. However you don’t go to the mine dump the rain will bring it to you.

UPS: RENE POTGIETER ENVIRONMNENTAL ACTIVIST - What happens is, with these slimes dams behind me, every time we have a lot of rain in this area, the slimes actually wash across the road, and the police from Welverdiend come and cordon off the roads and the mines come in with their payloaders and scrape all these slimes off the roads again and then the road gets reopened to the public. The problem is, all that they do is they come and put all the slimes here on the side of the road.

UPS: - VOICER - What is it like living across from a mine dump? Jan Nel is a farmer who used to live right between the Deelkraal, Doornfontein and Elandsrand mines on the Far West Rand.

UPS: JAN NEL; FARMER – the first problem I’ve experienced was that my chickens started dying. The death rate went up from three percent to twenty five percent. First I blamed my own management style so I changed my management style so it improved a little. But generally the death rate remain that high. 

UPS: - VOICER - The livers of his chickens grew to the size of a man’s hand. This is all that remains of the farm stall where Nel sold chicken and vegetables to the Welverdient community. After four years of negotiations, the mines finally bought Nel out.

AD BREAK 1

UPS: - VOICER - This might look like a prairie farm but we are actually on top of a huge mine dump. The one thing that the mines, the activists and the community seem to agree on is that the mine dumps are a problem.

UPS: REX ZORAB; HARMONY GOLD - During the period around 2005, the dam was stopped from being in production and the generation of dust became a problem for us. Since that time we’ve spent in excess of R10 million to profile the top of the dump, provide windbreaks provide vegetation.

UPS: - VOICER - Vegetating the top of the dumps is just the start. The gold mines are currently in the process of removing many of the mine dumps on the far West Rand completely. The plan is to reprocess the dust, remove the gold and uranium and sell it on.

UPS: REX ZORAB; HARMONY GOLD - Basically it is a water cannon that is directed at the tailings that will mobilize it into a slurry and the slurry is pumped via pipelines to the processing plant. They will then be pumped in a similar manner as they were brought to the plant out to a new tailings facility where they will be deposited in a conventional manner as we have done with these types of tailings as you see behind us.

UPS:- VOICER - Here the plan hits a snag. Everyone agrees that the tailings dams have to go. But where should they go to? That is the problem. Two different mining companies are currently planning tailings reclamation schemes. The first is by a consortium led by Harmony Gold, with added investment from the United States the second by an Australian company called Mintails. Both these schemes plan to remove several tailings dams on the West Rand. Both will use pipelines to pump the reprocessed tailings to two proposed mega-tailings disposal facilities. And when we say mega, we mean the two biggest mine dumps you will ever see. The proposed site for the Harmony superdump is just outside the town of Fochville. The proposed size: 800 hectares, or more than two by three kilometres.

UPS: - Dr. JANNIE OLIVIER; VETERINARIAN & FARMER - It’s going to be higher than those grain silos you can see behind us. The silos are about 35 metres, and the dump will be higher than that.

UPS: - VOICER -  Dr. Jannie Olivier is a farmer and the area veterinarian. His land lies right across from the proposed superdump.

UPS: - Dr. JANNIE OLIVIER; VETERINARIAN & FARMER - Personally, I wouldn’t want to live here. Where will we get water? I have 400 head of cattle here, 180 blesbuck, green bullfrogs when it rains. We have owls. Where will my animals and my family get water? The wetlands will be polluted.

UPS: - VOICER - Dr. Olivier doesn’t want to leave. He says his son wants to take over the farm one day. He feels that the mines acted in bad faith when they started buying up land in the area.

UPS: - Dr. JANNIE OLIVIER; VETERINARIAN & FARMER - We only heard about it in November. By then they were already far they were already buying the Rabes’ land

UPS: - VOICER - The Rabes are a higly successful family of farmers. Two years ago the patriarch Ben Rabe was named Farmer of the Year by an association of agricultural journalists. In the same year his son was named the Transvaal Agricultural Union’s Young Farmer of the Year. Last year they shocked the Fochville farmers’ community by selling this land to Harmony Gold. Now they are known as the Rabies family.

UPS: REX ZORAB; HARMONY GOLD - One of the selection criteria for the site is to understand what the farming capabilities are of the various areas. And in that regard, we drew from the database, from GDACE, the agricultural centre for Gauteng. And we used their database to identify land areas that have low, high or medium yield in terms of agriculture. Those areas that were targeted as high-yield areas were ruled out in terms of the initial selection phase.

UPS: - VOICER - However, when we went to the farm, we saw that it was being used as a testing site for an international seed company. At first glance, the area certainly seems like maize country. Ben Rabe didn’t want to be interviewed for this program, but he told me over the phone that the other Fochville farmers are just jealous because he and his neighbours got good prices for their land from the mining companies. Initially, Harmony Gold drafted a purchase contract with Jannie de Wet, the owner of an adjacent farm. He signed the contract, but then didn’t hear from the mine’s lawyers for a while. 

UPS: - Dr. JANNIE OLIVIER; VETERINARIAN & FARMER - And when I got the fax the next day it read that they don’t want to buy the land anymore.

UPS: -VOICER - After his deal with Harmony collapsed, he sold his farm to the government. Eventually, the State sold Jannie de Wet’s farm to Nkaxa Nkuna. Nkuna owns a chain of chicken restaurants in Gauteng. Even though he is still recovering from a recent car accident, he is already busy setting up stock farming to supply his businesses.  

UPS: - NKAXA NKUNA; FARMER - It is a nice area, the market is nearby and the land is quite fertile, there is water. I’ve seen a lot of farmers around here they are doing very well, with stockfarming, cattle, I’ve also seen nice cultivated lands, sunflowers and maize. It is quite a nice, good agricultural area.

UPS: - VOICER - The first time he heard that he might soon have a superdump next to his land, was when I called him.

UPS: - NKAXA NKUNA; FARMER - I was shocked. I was shocked. I mean, I gave up everything, city life and everything, and for me, you know, it’s a business I’m not here to retire or anything I’m here to start a new kind of business. If you are to start a business and you discover when you’re in the middle of it that there is something that is going to impact on that business, it is going to shock you. I mean, for me it just threw me off.

UPS: - VOICER - But for him, the superdump also touches the future of the country.

UPS: - NKAXA NKUNA; FARMER - Here we are trying to get more black people into agriculture, giving them opportunities and providing land, and at the same time you give people land that in the future is not going to be profitable. It is going to impact on the whole image of land restitution or the reallocation of land to new farmers. Obviously, it is not positive. Say they continue with the dump and I continue with the farm, and I fail in my venture as a black farmer, I should say, they will say that the land restitution has failed.

AD BREAK 2

UPS: VOICER - Witfontein, outside of Randfontein.The Australian company Mintails is proposing to cover this whole area with a second superdump. It will be even bigger than Harmony’s superdump in Fochville 1000 hectares or almost 10 square kilometres.  

UPS: HENNIE VAN ZYL; FARMER - From that radio mast, which lies between the Witfontein farm and the Rikasrus smallholdings. The mine dump will stretch three kilometers to the north and four kilometers over the hill to the west.

UPS: VOICER - Similar to Harmony in Fochville, Mintails have also already started buying out farmers in the area. The mines say they buy the proposed sites first to stop price speculation.

REPORT DEC 2007 – Mintails made this strategic decision to purchase the available properties that would be directly sterilized by the proposed TDF footprint.  There are two existing farmsteads with associated buildings on the properties owned by Mintails. These would be buried in the tailing dump

UPS: VOICER - Carin Bosman, a consultant advising companies and communities about these processes says the mines are buying the land on risk. If they don’t follow the correct procedures, the whole process could backfire.

UPS: - CARIN BOSMAN; ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT - In some cases, when processes are not fully understood, perhaps by the mines or even by people who act as consultants for the mines, they say well the land has now been purchased, so it’s a fait accompli. But that’s when the constitutional right of the community then comes in to say no it’s not a fait accompli, you have not followed the process of site selection to find the best practical option.

UPS: - VOICER - Fochville decided to move from process to protest.

We at the DA say fuck the mine dump! Away, mine dump, away!

UPS: REX ZORAB; HARMONY GOLD – Ladies and gentlemen the gathering here today is certainly given us an appreciation of the way in which we can interact with the communities on a positive basis.

UPS: -VOICER - Under to take note of Fochville concerns representatives from Harmony Gold took part in a protest march against themselves. Despite the resistance, the question remains what should be done with tailings heaps on the Far West Rand?

UPS: - CARIN BOSMAN; ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT - What is important to remember is that both these mega-tailings facilities are there to fix a problem that we have in the Krugersdorp area. We are sitting with large amounts of slimes that have been deposited in the Krugersdorp and Randfontein areas over the past 120 years when mining started. And in many cases these slimes dams were put in unfavourable conditions, on dolomites, without clay protection, sometimes even in the rivers, sometimes in wetlands, and as a result of this historic disposal we currently have the impacts on the area, on the Cradle of Humankind, so something should be done with it. It should be reprocessed, it should be put into a modern tailor-made, engineered, waste disposal facility and one can’t get around that fact. It’s going to fix a bad situation. So, the tailings facility should go ahead.

UPS: - MARIETTE LEIFFERINK; ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST -

We would strongly urge the mining groups that are involved in this matter Mintails and also Harmony Gold to consult, in earnest. In other words, to pursue through negotiation a single tailings disposal facility, to consolidate that, so that the impact is not only on one community only, and degradation will not be caused to two environments or two wetlands, but that it can be consolidated into one.

UPS: - Dr. JANNIE OLIVIER; VETERINARIAN & FARMER - Mintails area between Carletonville and Randfontein there’s granite. The two mines can dump their refuse there. The pipeline to that site is 22 kilometres. Why make it 45 kilometres further, here in an agricultural region? There are grasslands, not maize fields.

UPS: - HENNIE VAN ZYL; FARMER - There would be no buffer zone between the superdump and our smallholdings. That is unacceptable. We don’t want to be trapped between the superdump and radioactive stuff in the pipeline to the south.

UPS: - VOICER - The pipeline he is talking about is the same pipeline that carries radioactive mine discharges from the Donaldson Dam in Randfontein. The mines say one reason they chose these sites is that they are not on top of dolomite, a kind of rock that allows pollutants to seep through into the groundwater. However, the Mintails superdump will lie less than a kilometer away from the Wonderfonteinspruit. It is this densely populated area the super-dumps are supposed to clean up.

UPS: - CARIN BOSMAN; ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT - I think if the mines review what they’ve done to date, with proper public participation, and address the issues in a proper procedural manner, they will find a site that has broad community acceptance, and we can see an improvement on the Krugersdorp side and the impact that is currently felt as a result of these historical practices. One shouldn’t forget that this is actually something there to fix a problem. We just shouldn’t because we’re fixing a problem, create a different one.