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The Mountain That Kills
As a young girl, Bongekile Pozane loved the beautiful yellow mountain she could see from her home. It was where she learned to swim, where she went to find peace, and where she holds some of her most cherished childhood memories. Little did she know that the mountain was actually a toxic waste dump from the mines, filled with radioactivity, radon, asbestos and arsenic. “Now we just call it the killer mountain,” she says.
We are standing at the foot of a mountain. A yellow mountain. Not unlike the beautiful sand dunes found at popular holiday destinations. Beneath our feet, the ground is green. It is arsenic. This was where children from the surrounding villages used to swim. At the time, no one knew that the reason people were dying, falling ill, struggling to breathe or being born with disabilities could be traced back to the hunt for gold.
The mountain was sacred. Our ancestors lived here, or so we believed. There was no evil here, only peace. We loved this mountain, says Bongekile Pozane, a mother of three.
The killer mountain
We understand what she means. It is beautiful, and it is easy to be captivated by it. The mines provided jobs, and the towns lie like colourful clusters around it.
“Can you imagine it? Where we are standing now, on arsenic, this is where we competed to see who could swim the fastest and the furthest. On hot days we swam here. This was where we found peace in hard lives. This was a place of hope and joy. Now we just call it the killer mountain. Now it is killing us,” she says quietly.
The area is called Snake Park and is located in Soweto, about half an hour outside Johannesburg in South Africa. Mining has taken place here since the 1800s. The mines are closed, but there is still gold to be found. The mining waste is radioactive and full of uranium. There is asbestos, radon and arsenic.
Norwegian Church Aid has been present here for many years, together with our partner, the Bench Mark Foundation, fighting alongside those who live in the area. Working to secure rights and reduce economic inequality.
One of the people working at the Bench Mark Foundation is Thokozile Mtambo. She also grew up here and still lives close to her childhood home. For many, moving away is not an option.
“It is expensive to be poor. It is expensive to breathe clean air, it is expensive to live a free life. Everything that many people take for granted is not a given for those of us who are poor. That is why we stay here, even though it is dangerous. We have nowhere else to go,” she says.
A hard and difficult life
Thokozile is one of the activists at Bench Mark, working tirelessly on behalf of victims of brutal and reckless mining.
“Several members of my family are ill. I suffer from asthma myself. I truly would not wish this life on anyone. It is a hard and difficult life. But I will not give up the fight against powerful private companies that own private land, where none of the resources extracted benefit the people who live here,” she stresses.
In her work, she sends emails to mining companies and authorities, reminding them of rights, laws and regulations. She also documents the injustices being committed against local communities.
“According to the law, everyone in South Africa has the right to a safe and environmentally healthy neighbourhood. No one here has that. That right has been taken away from them without them being able to do anything about it. It makes me angry. That human lives are worth so little. How are we supposed to survive when all the minerals extracted from this area do not benefit the people who live here?” she asks.
While Thokozile and the Bench Mark Foundation continue to apply pressure, the struggle against powerful interests is constant.
“I have become an expert at not giving up,” she says with an ironic smile, before continuing. “We do what we can to use our own legal system, laws and regulations in this fight. We know how to apply pressure, and we encourage people to speak up and file complaints. I have no intention of giving up. I just want the gold to benefit everyone, so that the resources extracted help to build society rather than tear it apart.”
High levels of chemicals in the air
The entire “gold rush” began a few kilometres away, in Riverlea. As we step out of the car to see the country’s first gold mine, our eyes begin to sting and breathing becomes difficult. We quickly put on face masks before walking towards the abandoned mine.
“There is still a lot of activity here, but it is entirely unofficial,” says Cederick Ortell.
He too works tirelessly to hold companies accountable and force them to clean up after themselves, through the Riverlea Mining Forum.
“You can really feel how polluted the air is. Just look at my phone. I am monitoring air quality all the time, and you can see very high levels of chemicals. Right now, the air quality is extremely poor,” he says, showing us the graphs.
To reach the mine, we pass a primary school.
“Just think about it. Children go to school here, breathing this air. There is hardly a child here who does not have respiratory problems,” he says.
He continues, “For us, it is crucial to keep pushing for clean-up efforts, for all the toxic waste to be removed. Tests have been carried out on children here, and they show radioactive substances such as uranium in their hair and under their fingernails.”
It is not only the air that is polluted. Drinking water has also been affected by mining. Cederick takes us to the drinking water source, just outside the town centre.
“Do you see the white foam? That foam was put into a matchbox, and it corroded it. This is what people are consuming. For us, it is essential to speak up and stand our ground, even though it is a difficult fight where we are often not heard.”
Guro Almås, Norwegian Church Aid’s Programme Director at our regional office in Kenya, speaks about people living in extreme poverty, without their rights being protected.
“The mining companies are able to clean up if they want to, but local communities are constantly given empty promises. We are here to support them in raising their voices,” she says.
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