27 July 2020 – Mfidikoe village

By Velile Khoza

Here in Mfidikoe village Rustenburg we saw communities suffer the consequences of air pollution from tailing dams .

This tailing dams are so toxic to the health an environment of the community due to dust that books from the remining activity,when remining activity are being performed all the dust flocks into environment an most of the times the wind blew to north north west side of the village since well spring is just around the corner the community will be exposed to 70 % of dust coming down to be breathed by them.

The air quality officers of the company which is platinum miles resources ( pmr) should account to environmental impact assessment guidelines of mprda an the bill of rights but for community to take rightful measures to make this company to comply the are gatekeepers who are keeping the gate for communities to have sittings with mining safety officers.

I as an human rights defender i approached the department of health here in Mfidikoe which is a local clinic officials, when i arrived there i ask the relevant person to shoe the TB stats of ward 34 an guess what the stats spoke for the figures that are so shameless.

38 % of the people who are TB patients are from the squatter camp that is situated just under the tailing dam that is remining by platinum miles resources an this company found the squatter camp there an i wonder how did they were permitted a mining licence by dmr an how the department of environment pass their environmental guideline.