Mining toxic tour in Mpumalanga, Ermelo

Community Alerts, Lorraine Kakaza, Mpumalanga, Carolina, 2018/11/04

Imbabala mine started it’s operation in 1994 – 2009 .The mine is situated in Ermelo Weslton Mpumalanga province … what we have experience today was touching and painful at the same time to see how marginalised Communities have to bear the blunder of these multinational corporations.
We could see some holes were the locals enter to extract coal remains to sell so that they can earn something to sustain their lives.

You could see the environment is no longer in good condition, due to the look of the grass colour has changes to brownish in colour ,livestock are so thin and the water is contaminated with  greenish colour.There is no agricultural activities taking place therefore the community no longer have secured food..

After mining The corporations left the land unrehabilitated, exposing the community to more danger.We also visited Spitkop mine which was discovered Early in the 1980’s and converted to Umsobo coal after Goldview sinkhole turned dangerous for community livelihood and their health. it was discovered in 2015 and the local government built houses ignoring the fact of the sinking land /sinkholes.

We manage to proceed to another site where , Mr Mabuza has employed more than 200 employees to extract the coal which is sold to the locals for home use and in return the employees from the local community earn few coins to sustain their livelihood.Mr Mabuza has been struggling as he has land but is not allowed to take what is underneath thus he is appealing for help.

Lesson learnt from Kenya delegations we were with on the tour that they won’t allow mine to continue after what they have seen.Our delegation’s from Kenya said they came at the right time because in Kenya they have discovered coal so they are here to do benchmarking

Lesson learnt from communities
_ Life was much better before
_ They ‘ll go back home and look at their mining act on how to engage

_What is the agreement between the country and the mining company

What role is needed to give support so that people will decide for themselves

_Community involvement is very important
_They need to look in all 3 phases of which is EIA,Cost,Struggle and the impact of mining and compensation..

_What should the Government do to address those issues and Participation of people,right to give concerns