Local complaints about the negative impacts of “Intabamhlophe” mine tailing in Snake Park/Thulani.

Motseki Daniel Mkwanazi

It has been over the past 7 years since Mr. Sipho Radebe had been farming at Block 1, nearby the scrapyard there is a field where farmers are doing their farming, livestock, and breeding.

We had a chance to visit one of the farm owners “Emasimini” in the residing farms. who shared his views based on how the mine tailings and its dust emissions are potentially toxic to them as well as their farms and livestock. “Sometimes I wake in the morning with one of my animals dead and all my crops polluted by dust from the mine Tailing,” said by 36-year-old male named Monde.

Having such a loss of losing his livestock and polluted plants, has been very sad and tough for the farm owners because the plants are for harvesting and more importantly for survival mode. So they mostly sell animals or livestock to make an honest living and some livestock is for breeding season purposes, yet he goes on and complains that some livestock goes blind due to the dust from the mine tailing that is nearby his farm since they moved there in 2015 August.

The key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization is farming although the local farm owners of Snake Park/ Thulani face severe consequences of the mine tailing so badly yet they need to make an honest living to feed their families, through growing edible plants.