Community building houses with what appears to be chrome waste

Community Alerts/Olebogeng Motene/Rustenburg/03/09/2018

Ikemeleng is an informal settlement which has been dominated by shacks for years as most of its inhabitants used the place in hope of using their shelter as a temporary solution but with the current economic climate, lack to land access and mining companies failure to have proper housing plans for their employees most end up residing in this settlements for years and raise their families one generation after the other in such conditions.

The Ikemeleng settlements now have community taps, electricity, Ventilated Improved Toilets, tarred roads, a clinic but all this development came with its own disadvantages but lives of the residents are much better compared to a few years back. On my visit to Ikemeleng informal settlement I noticed a new dangerous trend, the residents are using what appears to be Chrome waste to build their houses and all over their yards for a more solid ground as the soil around the community is clay soil type.

They make bricks, built houses, security walls out of this soil/sand. I had a brief off record conversation with one of the house owners, I asked if he knew the impact of the soil. He appeared to know as he said they can’t avoid the impacts of the soil as the dust find a way to them anyway from the tailings.

I found out that the mine gives out the soil for free, all the community has to do is arrange own transportation to carry the soil and what they do with it is not the mine’s concern. The soil is found in almost every house. My assumption is this has an impact on the resident’s respiratory health. By Olebogeng Motene