The plight of Kroondal: mines misery and municipal neglect
Terrence Ngobeni
Name: Terrence Ngobeni
Province: North West
District: Bojanala
Local Municipality: Rustenburg
Village: Kroondal Ikemeleng
Date:21 July 2024
The plight of Kroondal: mines misery and municipal neglect
In Kroondal, the community is voicing their distress over residing in an unhealthy environment, greatly impacted by the encroaching presence of nearby mines. The mine’s activities are causing significant detriment by contaminating the water sources with high concentrations of heavy metals, flowing into our community rivers which we depend on for fishing, washing, swimming when it is hot, children’s places to play, and where cattle drink water. Despite these pressing concerns, the local municipality fails to address these critical issues effectively, leaving the community grappling with many challenges.
Residents are facing dire circumstances with inadequate access to essential services like electricity, designated dumping sites, and proper sewage systems for gray water management. As a result, the once vibrant and picturesque landscape of Kroondal is marred by the unsightly presence of gray water inundating the streets, painting a grim picture of neglect and environmental degradation.
The plight of Kroondal speaks to a broader issue of environmental injustice and the need for urgent intervention to safeguard the well-being of the community. With increasing pollution and deteriorating living conditions, the residents are left with a growing sense of frustration and helplessness. Authorities must take swift and decisive action to address these systemic challenges and prioritize the health and safety of the Kroondal community.
On 26 June 2024, I interviewed 2 members of the community about Kroondal’s background, and my first question was how they felt about Kroondal
The first member said “Kroodal is a very corrupt place, it is not a healthy place for us who are living here because in every street you walk in the gray water everywhere and papers and diapers. In the community water stream bridge, there is a lot of unhealthy stuff and children are playing there, the next morning they wake up sick. There is high unemployment here, especially for youth and again there is a lot of water around the streets, and during the rainy season, the tailing dam gets full. They open them and the fish comes out of the tailing dam we catch them and eat them which is not healthy for people and is not like we are always happy”.
A second member said, “In Krooondal we have a problem with the dumping side because of lack of proper waste management so there are papers everywhere and there is gray water everywhere around our streets, so we need help with sewage for Kroondal to be better, and we have been struggling for a long time and there is no change, we are all tired of this. We have a high rate of unemployment it can help if the youth are given job opportunities for change”. and he said they have a big problem with electricity because people are not being assisted by the municipality when there is a fault so the community is repairing it for themselves and there is no good service on electricity transformers, so they blow up.
