Legacy of the Mine

Exploring the consequences of mining on South Africa’s land and people, I am unsettled by what lies ahead. The need for economic growth cannot be ignored but neither can the sustainability of the earth and water for generations to come. Exploitation, corruption and greed threaten the land, the very thread that connects all South Africans. Once a symbol of wealth and a formidable force in the development of South Africa, the mine today reveals the scars of neglect and decay and as such poses an irreversible threat to our society.

Accompanying Text

In 1886, the discovery of the main reef of gold bearing conglomerate on Langlaagte Farm near Johannesburg brought about significant changes in South Africa. It would set off a series of events that would recognise South Africa as a world leader in mining. Powerful entrepreneurs were on hand to exploit these natural resources.

The unrelenting growth of the mine spread across the Highveld and throughout South Africa’s provinces. As the mine churned up the earth, it left in its wake, extreme wealth for the few, exploitation and suffering for the majority and environmental implications that we are only presently starting to see the affects of.

By 1970 and with the continual extension to the gold reefs, combined output peaked at 1,000 tons; by 1990 output was down to 605 tons. South Africa was yet to face another transition in the form of great political change. This brought about the need for a radical rethink and restructuring of the mining industry.

South Africa is no longer the leading supplier of gold and now falls just behind China in the race to supply the world with this mineral. However South Africa is still recognized globally for its abundance of mineral resources, accounting for a significant proportion of world production and reserves. Even though mining has declined over the past 10-20 years, South Africa is one of the leading producers of gold, diamonds, base metals and coal.

Mining has been a key factor in South Africa’s development and the shaping of the landscape, as we know it today. These minerals have brought about national economic growth, making the mining industry, the largest industrial sector in South Africa. The mining industry employs an estimated half a million people.

Yet the legacy of the mine is prevalent in all aspects of South African society. Environmental and social impacts of mining bring with it major risks. Benefits are not always equitably shared, and local communities closest to the source of the mineral development can suffer the most. Mining can provide jobs in economically marginal areas but are limited. Communities that come to depend on mining to sustain their economies are especially vulnerable to negative social impacts, when the mine closes.

Alcoholism, prostitution, and sexually transmitted diseases are still rampant in the mining hostels that lie adjacent to mines across South Africa. Today some of these abandoned structures form part of an unseen community lacking employment, poor sanitary conditions and a dwindling hope for the future. These communities have very little or no relationship to the mines that were once in operation and have since closed.

Large quantities of waste from mining have contributed to ongoing and disastrous consequences. Manmade mine dumps litter Johannesburg’s skyline, adding pressure to a developing economy to find ways to tackle this incurring environmental threat. Currently 4 772 officially listed abandoned mines lie dormant across South Africa, five times higher than the number of operational mines. Informal settlements have a propensity to develop and grow on the peripheries and in some cases on top of these uninhabitable wastelands. These communities are in danger of air pollution exasperated from dust on coal mines, combustion resulting from burning mine workings or dumps, contamination of ground and surface water, also known as acid mine drainage and physical hazards posed by sites with open shafts and unstable ground. It is estimated that it could take up to 800 years for the rehabilitation of some mines.


Small towns on the Witwatersrand, Gauteng span the length of the gold bearing reef. Active and abandoned mines lie hidden behind long grass and Eucalyptus trees. Within these margins an illegal industry generally goes unnoticed. Zama Zama ‘illegal miners’ undertake backbreaking work; risking death deep underground in abandoned mine shafts or on the mine dumps that litter the surface. An oz of gold can fetch as little as R250.

With the world wide economic slowdown, the cost of mining gold has become less profitable, as a result other aspects of mining, such as coal mining are expanding. South Africa still relies on billions of tons of coal for energy production, which is predominately found in the Mpumalanga province. South Africa is the world’s third largest coal exporter.

Witbank in particular, a town built around the coal mining industry, renamed eMalahleni meaning ‘place of coal’, revealed the extent to which mining has impacted on the land and people. The conditions uninhabitable, riddled with sinkholes silently swallowing the land and homes that perch precariously to these dumps. By the late afternoon burning coal smoke begins to fill the air as a thick blanket of smog lingers above.

The encroachment of coalmines on farmlands have become commonplace. The future of farming families living on top of rich mineral wealth is uncertain. Mines unexpectedly open with no public participation and have in some cases begun operation in sensitive wetland areas. Farmers believe that people with high political connections are involved in the mining industry. With limited knowledge on the legal aspects of land reclamation for mining, numerous farmers have already lost their land. Many are still feeling the negative effects of the mining industry on the environment and their livelihoods.

Respiratory disease from coal dust is prevalent amongst communities, which have chosen to remain on their land. The contamination of groundwater for which they rely on to grow their crops hampers farming production.

The mining industry is not going to move forward quietly, there are large quantities of money to be made. Significant transactions have recently been seen by the creation of black-owned companies under the Black Economic Empowerment programme. President of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema recently banned from the ANC has been campaigning for the nationalization of the mine. The Youth League aims to nationalize the means of production as well as the resources in order to distribute the profits among the people as a whole. The National Union of Mineworkers, the country’s biggest and most influential union, has hit back, claiming that such actions would threaten the livelihoods of the estimated half a million workers in the mining industry.

The Freedom Charter signed and sealed in June 1955 stated that the people shall share in the country’s wealth and more importantly ‘the mineral wealth below the soil, the banks, and monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole”. Nearly half a century later, a law was passed bringing this into effect. Under it, the state became the “custodian” of all the country’s mineral and petroleum resources, with the power to provide licenses to public or private companies wishing to exploit those resources.

(All images in this project ‘Legacy of the Mine’ were produced in 2011 and are part of an ongoing investigation into the mining industry in South Africa. Captions pertaining to this project have also been included for their significance to the images submitted)

Captions

1-Sandile Dlamini is 24 years old and lives in the Paynville squatter camp in Springs. He used to work as a miner at Grootvlei mine before it closed in 2010. Sandile showed me an un-operational ventilation shaft, “No 8” that has been used by illegal miners as an access point into Grootvlei mine. This gets them access into shaft “No 4” the main shaft where one can find more gold of a higher value. Sandile says, ‘Men have fallen to their death trying to climb into this shaft.” Sandile has worked as a Zama Zama ‘illegal miner’ in Benoni at shaft “No 13” which is part of Grootvlei mine. Sandile says, “the conditions are unbearable and you can stay underground for six months to a year and only come up for food when it runs out.” The men that organise the illegal mining operations are known as the ‘Kingpins’ and are all from Zimbabwe. The buyers take you to shaft “No 13” and then pick you up when the work is complete. Payment is based on how much gold you find, one gram of gold is worth R250. The ‘Kingpins’ supply the miners with food and water. Miners have to pay inflated amounts for anything extra. In Welkom, cigarettes go for between R200 and R400 a pack of 20, bread R100 and whisky close to R1 500. There is no safety and oxygen is limited. You run the risk of being caught and also losing your life if the mine shaft collapses”. At Shaft “No 13” two men died when the mineshaft collapsed, their bodies were never recovered; they were from the Eastern Cape and Lesotho. Life for these miners can often become violent as they fight for the best spots and in some cases murdering each other deep underground.

2-Michael Wilheim Calitz, nicknamed ‘Willie’ is 26 years old and rents a room in Cinderella Hostel, Boksburg. He works as a street beggar to earn money to support his son, Dillan, who lives with his mother. He is desperate to make enough money and also offers himself for sexual acts with men. If he does not provide maintenance for his son he could go to jail. Michael says, “When I was 19 years old, my father passed away. Everything started going wrong in my life. I started taking drugs and became very depressed. I have tried to commit suicide three times”. Cinderella hostel was the migrant worker compound for ERPM Cason Shaft. It is one of many hostels around South Africa that was part of the migrant labour system under Apartheid. The hostels housed men from rural communities who left behind their wives and children to travel long distances to work on the mines. The conditions in these compounds were cramped with up to 19 men per room. These hostels still contribute to the spread of HIV related diseases, tuberculosis, pneumonia and other air-borne infections.

3-A family spend the day fishing on the Vaal River. An estimated 12 million people in four provinces, Gauteng, the Free State, North West and Northern Cape, rely on the water from the Vaal River system. Reports reveal that by 2014 the water will not be suitable for human consumption. Posing a threat to health, the economy and food production. Researchers have stated that the problem is caused by acidic water seeping from waste on abandoned mines and the discharge of untreated acidic mine water into rivers and streams tributary to the Vaal River system. If interventions by the government are not urgently put into place, the cost involved could be in the region of R500 billion; the looming pollution crisis could hamper growth and cause a plague of health problems. Mariette Liefferink, chief executive officer of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment warns, “that toxic water affects the soil and neural development of the foetus, which leads to mental retardation, can cause cancer and cognitive problems”.

4-Sylvia Mlimi, Angel Mona and Setty Mndawe with the coal they have collected. Everyday they need to go out in search of coal for cooking and keeping their home warm during the winter months. Likazi Informal settlement on Coronation Colliery in Witbank. Incidents have been reported where people have been killed while digging for coal at the Likazi informal settlement.

5-Monde, Puleng, Zizipho and Khuselo play on the Riverlea mine dump near their homes. Riverlea is a new housing development on the corner of Main Reef Road and Nasrec Road, Johannesburg. This is the area where the first discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand Main Reef took place. The discovery of gold was un-earthed by Harrison and George Walker in March 1886. For decades, gold miners have been extracting residual gold from the dumps. Today chemical methods are used to enable companies to ‘re-mine’ the dumps, slowly changing the Johannesburg landscape once again. However, this also has beneficial impact on the environment as these large mounds of sand are being flattened. For every metric tonne of solid waste heaped in the dumps there is just 0.3 grams of gold.