Rustenburg mine hosting communities under dust attack

Community Alerts/ Kenny Phalose/ Rustenburg-Thekwane/Mfidikoe/ 07 October 2016

Communities around mining operations in Rustenburg have been affected by the dust from the Anglo American mining tailings for a long time.one in particular is Mfidike and Zakhele informal settlement which is meters away from the tailings.Now Anglo American Platinum  contracted Frazer Alexander to remine the tailings and that made matters worse because when there is wind Zakhele, Mfidikoe , Thekwana and Bokamoso are covered by white dust which affects lungs and limit vision on the  roads around these places.

Our houses are full of dusts which contaminate our food and water, also we and our children are coughing constantly. Most of children around here are born asthmatic, respiratory related illnesses and have tonsils said Asanda from Zakhele

Communities forced mine to mitigate the dust on 2014 but after 2 years later the dust is still worse whilst Anglo claims that they are in control of dust mitigation around their operations even though what I captured today does not correspond with what they are saying and yes there are companies working on the tailing but without any viable results.

“Also gas emissions from their plants and concentrators are affecting us  so badly that we are sick and worse we cannot get employment from these plants as we are failing their medical entry examinations due to exposure years before because we are staying meters from the operations”complained Nchimane who os one pf unemployed Mfidike resident

Anglo American Platinum plant safety manager Mr Mosi said “we are in control of every emissions from our ACP Anglo plant ,there are reliable state of the art monitoring systems around the plant and also there is a monitoring system in Mfidike community which gives early warning to avoid unforseen circumstances so we convert our emissions to sulphuric acid to avoid polluting air”