Mine affected community struggles from relocation
Community Alerts, Mpumalanga, Lorraine Kakaza, Carolina, 2018/12/08
DAY 5
Date:07/12/2018
Site visit with Wamua
Expect the unexpected
CRU community Rental Unit.
Sishen Kumba iron ore is bullying people into relocation from Dingleton to Siyathemba Location… Two families are forced to pay R3500.00 each while they are sharing 3 and half room of which is two bedrooms,small kitchen ,dinning room and a bathroom ..
The agreement was that they stay for 3 months but they ended up staying for 1 year full, before they stayed at the group five containers which is the construction site. the relocation occured after Kumba mine wanted to expand their operations…
CRU was build with cheap materials. There is a lot of tension here other people are not paying rent because they are divided into two groups, there are those who refuse to be moved by the mine of which is OCP.. at the later stage they decided to move because Kumba is demolishing their houses
Roletta Van dear Linder one of the residents who’s concern about the situation that they are facing after they have been relocated from Dingleton to Siyathemba says :-it’s now one year now being relocated ..every year there is a budget from the municipality, where does that money goes to and it’s not that Kumba can’t afford to build us new houses..
From Dingleton we never struggle our children in order to go to school they had to hire taxis before it was a walking distance to school and it was safe.Our children are now involved in drugs,theft and they’re now dropping out from school due to the expensive transports that parents have to pay and most of these kids are from underprivileged backgrounds, we then ask Kumba to build us a rehab centre, Kumba didn’t meet the community’s needs
Here we have a mobile clinic back in Dingleton we were having a permanent structure,we’re struggling with water we stay for almost a week without water no one notifies us.
If there is an emergency you don’t get urgent help.. in order for you to get an urgent help you have to buy your own airtime voucher to call the sister(nurse) there is no land line at the mobile clinic ,if there is no water the mobile clinic will be closed..
Kumba is now demolishing the houses from Dingleton and now communities are fighting each other,there’s a conflict, they were promised 25 square meter houses by Kumba
I asked were do they pay their rent monthly, the respond was they pay money to the bank with their given reference and they have to keep the receipts
The worse part young children don’t have play grounds and the sewer is over flowing.