Our vast landscape is covered with mine tailings

Menge Agnes Choledi

Farmers from communal land (commonage)are suffering and crying, and some of the farmers
from some parts of the farming community are also supporting the cries because of the mine
tailings dam that broke out two years ago but still lying around our town and river up to the farm
a distance of 30 kilometers.

To this day nothing has changed and our place is dead and is a ghost town, we don’t see the
mine trying to rehabilitate our land and the government is too quiet about the matter. Something
is fishy hereThere was no report and no investigation conducted even the prosecution.
After partnering with the South African Tailings Civil Society Working Group the Jagersfontein
Transformation Committee reached out for assistance and support. They supported our efforts
by helping us obtain all reports that should be published to serve the community’s best interests.
We are also committed to ensuring Justice is served for the people of Jagersfontein.

After the intervention of the civil society Tailings working group, it’s where by we saw the mine
trying to clean our place and he was not willing to fix what he messed up. That’s why till today I
ask myself how can someone mess up and then expect that person to fix up, no he won’t. He
just needs to be punished and nominate the relevant person to come and do the right job, that is
why we feel like in Jagersfontein there is no government, and law and justice were never served
for the people of Jagersfontein. We are still waiting for the president to come and explain to us
how ANC managed to deal with the issue of the Jagersfontein diamond mine that has killed
people and left us homeless and desperate. Today due to this tailing our town is so cold that we
don’t even know what is happening. We are very concerned about our place; our voices need to
be heard by those in power in solidarity.