FOLLOW UP MARCH TO DMRE

DATE: 22 /09/ 2021
NAME: VUSI MABASO
PLACE: VOSMAN
MUNICIPALITY: EMALAHLENI LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
PROVINCE: MPUMALANGA

#DMREMUSTFALL

In September 2019 VEM arranged a march to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy which was attended by many Environmental Organizations in the presence of law enforcement and journalists.

The problem that lead us to march was because we wrote so many letters that were ignored . This time around we decided to revisit them as we did not receive any responce from them .

The residents all over South Africa staying on the fence line of the Mines in question are negatively affected with the polluted air from the blasting that takes place on regular basis, thus the community members are mostly affected or infected with diseases related to respiratory problems.

The polluted toxic dust and fumes blow towards the communities and people inhale it on daily basis and the clothing and surroundings are covered with the dusty smoke and this in turn has an effect on lungs and some are asthmatic due to the impact of the blasting dust. The sound or echo elicited during the blasting also impact negatively as some residents think it’s an earthquake when hearing it. So we alerted the DMRE’s official about everything that the mines are doing .

The official listened to some community members(abogogo) who insisted that they would like to express how they feel before going back as for them (gogos) they are there to talk to them unlike us we bringing a memorandum.

The official’s responded to the gogos and apologized for the suffering caused by the mines and promised to fast track the feedback to us and to stop the illegal mines.