School holidays Spent at the tailing dump

Community Alerts/Thokozile Mntambo/Snakepak-Soweto/02/10/2018

01 October 2018 15H00

Yesterday in the afternoon as in went to monitor in the tailing dump. I thought I won’t find children because the ponds are dry. To my surprise, I found more than 15 children aged around 8 years to 10 years. Playing in the dump . Some of them are not from Snake Park they are visiting their relatives. When I ask them why they spend the day in this tailing because it is dangerous, they said they are bored schools are closed they don’t know where to go and play. The was a boy who was sneezing non-stop and the sand covered his face, he says he is just visiting his cousin and they always come to play in the dump because their bored.

02 October 2018 12h00pm

This Afternoon when I there to c if maybe those kids came back I found them even more in numbers over 20 . they were relaxing like their in the beach others even took off their clothes walking around so freely. Most of these children are boys. They say that there are no sports facilities around, and they really love swimming but they have to walk an hour to Jake at Dobsonville. They arrive there tired. So it’s better for them to come to the tailing. School holidays are spent in the tailing which is very dangerous. Because of the lack of recreational facilities in Thulani Snake park, Children don’t even have a park or a library to go and relax.

By Thokozile Mntambo