Toxic crops in the school yard caused by mine tailings

Sicelo Sithole

The community of Snake Park has gardens in the schools to feed the students, but they are
unaware of the toxic dust that flows into the gardens during the day. This dust makes the
students sick because of the toxic vegetables that are harvested in the schools’ bark yards.
Mamdimpho from Block 2 has a creach and an orphanage home in her yard she has a large
backyard garden in which she plants spinach, potatoes, carrots, and cabbage and she cooks
them for the kids knowing that the vegetables are contaminated with chemicals some of the
children will react to the food and have illnesses like food poison and alleges skin reaction
and runny stomach parents will complain and fight with her without knowing the cause of
disease to the kids.

One of the parents Lindiwe Zwane from Block 1 said her child had skin problems by eating
the vegetables in Mamdimpho garden. She had to take the child to the doctor regularly in the
month without any assistance from the creach and Mamdimpho also said now she no longer
feeds her children the vegetables from the bark yard garden cause now she knows that they
are contaminated with dangerous chemicals from the mine tailing.

Residents of Snake Park have bark yard gardens and they plant a variety of plants in the
schools and their backyards without knowledge that the soil is contaminated with chemicals
that are harmful to one’s health.

As Bambanani corporative of Snake Park, we are trying to implement safety and awareness
for the community to be cautious about the mine tailing and try to prevent getting sick and be
well informed about the mine tailing and its effects in the community of Snake Park.