Toxic dust blows at high speed into the community of Snake Park

Sicelo Sithole

Talings are very highly toxic and they compromise people’s lives, In Snake Park residents are
exposed to the dangerous chemicals that come from the mine tailing dump. Inhaling is more
dangerous. Many community residents have health issues like wheezing chests from young
children and babies who are born with deformities, in most cases some never grow normally
because of the toxic chemicals.

In Block 7 a mother whose name is Nomsa said her 16-year-old boy Sthembiso has cerebral
palsy and looks like a three-year-old baby because of deformation that’s caused by the
chemicals from the mine tailing. Nomsa spends more time at home to care for her son and
struggles to get a job because she can’t leave her son alone since he is not even attending any
school. In Snake Park, there is no center for people living with disabilities and South Africa is
the most unequal country when it comes to providing free education to people who are living
with disabilities.

Moketsi Mofokeng from block 3, the father of Sthembiso, also said he is very angry with the
mine tailing because it has disabled his son and made him unable to do anything for himself. It
is a challenge to the family and more difficult for him to understand why they don’t remove this
mine tailing for good so that people can be healthy and live in a healthy environment.
Residents are now looking for the best way to eliminate the mine tailing as people want this
toxic mine tailing to be removed for health reasons.

We must all have one common goal to tell the mine tailing owners to remove the mine tailing
and everyone must be part of the movement to fight for what is good for the community.