BY 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.
