Bua Mining Communities

Tshepang Sarah Rambao (Bapong) “In the village of Segwaelane is very hard to drive and walk due to the potholes on the roads” said Sidney Mbiza who is a resident at Segwaelane in Bapong Ba Mogale sedtion.his potholes are dangerous to drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Sidney who recently bought a car around January this year is not happy because he says that these potholes may break one’s car if you not too careful, and he has to use this road daily, he also mentioned that he grew up in Segwaelane and they never had a tarred road when they finally did, it didn’t last long, it was one small pothole in the beginning and later the road was filled with potholes. Sidney was a perfect interviewee because he lives in Segwaelane and experiences the impact of these potholes first hand daily. The key points Everyone in Segwaelane is affected by these potholes. People’s lives are in danger due to the forever increasing potholes. According my understanding this is a serious situati...

Kgomotso Ramatlhware (Segwaelane) Roads in the new stands in segwaelane The community have been living in this section for over seven years with no proper roads. They use path ways and open roads by cars. The community once gathered and discussed the issues they face with Kgosana (head man) and mandated to take the issues to the tribal office and ask on the behalf of the community to get the road greated till today nothing has happened. In rainy days it becomes a major challenge to walk to school or get to work due to muddy roads. One has to wear boots or plastics until you reach the gravel road. There is stream across the section that flows only in rainy days and few days after. This stream ruins the road and runs through dumping sites and flows with the rubbish and dumps it on people’s yard which is hazardous to society and the environment. This has to come to an end as society has a right to proper roads and sanitation. We have to fight together to become a deve...

Tsholo Kokwe (Ikemeleng) Illegal power connections Ignorance of the authority to render services to the people of Ikemeleng has left residents to connect electricity illegally. Problems • The wire connections are not up to standard and not deep enough • Electricity traps that are danger during rainy days to both children and elders Even though it’s illegal, it’s unfairly distributed, some people are connected and some are not because there is a lot of favouritism or they cannot afford to pay. There was no interview because I talk to them occasionally and I know them very well, I see them playing television, use electrical appliance and I even charge my phone there for R5 on daily basis. Key points • To them it’s not illegal because they negotiate and pay connection fees • If you want to know the fees you pay R25 and those who more are the business owners • Maybe this illegal connection will force the authority to install electricity in Ikemeleng People have suffered for a long...

Buti Botopela (Ikemeleng) Ikemeleng roads The danger of busy and high accident roads from town (Rustenburg CBD) and local mining industries to Ikemeleng which has claimed many lives and left several in injured. • This busy road has high accident rate and potholes, no road signs, during rain this road became a mad trap for those who try to walk and drive, so the Ikemeleng residents are immobile during rainy days because of this roads. *I interviewed Mkhulu a resident of Ikemeleng. I choose him because he is from the informal settlements in Ikemeleng and experience the impact of this road (lack of service delivery) first hand. Key points from the interview • Potholes • No road signs • Speed humps • Traffic robots • Death of workers and school children due to accidents • No tarred road • Free grazing of livestock I learned/found out that the traffic department knew all this problems concerning the roads and the high accidents rates yearly and has promised road signs in Ikemel...

Buti Botopela (Ikemeleng) Bulk water tank in Ikemeleng Since 2008 the tank was installed but not yet finished. I found out that the problem is the different tender contracts come each year and after three to four months the budget is finished and nothing is done, the last contract was Mozardam civil engineering. In 2009 the community of Ikemeleng was very happy thinking that one problem of many they are facing will be solved but that was not the case. Now a good and important thing to the Ikemeleng community is the new contract called www.CAN.co.za,since the 30th April we have seen good results, they have installed more than 22 taps and the water was tested on the 09 May and they run safe clean to be used water. On the 10 April 2012 I found out that the will be a meeting organised for the community to discuss the problem solved, and it will be the official opening of the bulk water tank for the Ikemeleng informal settlement. Possibly soon we will all be happy to get run...

This railway is next to Xstrata Merafe smelters in Boeshoek. on the 04th of October 2012 nine people got injured in a taxi and train accident, among the injured there was an eight months baby and the driver. Police are investigating reckless driving and negligence.

Colleen Raphata (Chaneng) The Chaneng-Rasimone level crossing There are not much accident that took place just four by far, two taxis and one car and a van. In one taxi the driver died and one passenger injured the other one the driver was alone he made it out without any injuries, the private car was a tragic because the car span until and crashed to a nearby house luckily there was no one home by the time and the driver and all his passengers died on the scene, in the van was from Chaneng and it got hit from the back by the train and thrown out of the railway no one was injured. There are no signs so that a major challenge for drivers, so the traffic department must do their job.

Rapula Kedige (Tlhabane) Life can be unfair sometimes. People fought for the liberation of this country and the people of the townships of Tlhabane are no exceptions to that. They had to come up with strategies to down, weaken, paralyse and destabilize the apartheid government which also had planned very well, for example introducing the so called independent states (TBVC). One of the people strategies was to boycott the payment of services with a promise from the wanna-be leaders that after freedom the people won’t be liable to pay that debt or rather will be exempted from paying those monies. The community is now faced with the problem of having to pay or face water cut-off because the municipality has handed their accounts to revenue collectors (REVCO). To dwell more into this issue I interviewed one of the people who has been and still fighting for scrapping of all the debt which he refers to as apartheid debt, he is a member of SANCO Tlhabane branch an...

. Kagiso Padi (Mafenya) The effects of the ventilation pipes on our community are very bad. This is to inform the community at large about the danger of this ventilation pipes that are in the village. This village is situated in-between Chaneng and Rasimone and is called Robega. These pipes were constructed in the years 2006 and 2008. One is to take air underground and the other to release gasses outside because they are dangerous underground. These pipes are a great danger to our community because we develop lung problems, illness and they have a negative impact on the environment. I managed to interview someone who resides next to the pipe and he told me that around five and six o’clock, if up in the sky around the pipe you can see dust coming out, and there are no plants growing where it is situated, so I went there to check myself and he was right. It operates 24 hours and the noise level is very high .And there is another one next to two schools (Charora High School ...

Tsholo kokwe (Ikemeleng) Ikemeleng is the biggest place which is divided in to three sections Dindela, Riverside and Ikemeleng centre. But we don’t have clinic even a health centre. We only attend clinic when a mobile clinic visits us in our community but it help some of people but not all of them. It only helps babies and people with high blood, flu, and headache and women prevention. It came only once a month around 7 to 10.Pregnant women, people getting treatment for HIV and AIDS, T.B, injuries, diabetics and stroke are not getting help from this mobile clinic. They supposed to go to the gateway clinic or classic clinic next to game at Rustenburg town. When a woman gets delivery pains she is supposed to call ambulance, sometimes it delays to collect a patient and sometimes at night patient must go to Tlhabane clinic before and clinic transfer the patient to the hospitals especially Rustenburg town and they said they only help patients who came with an ambulance and ...

By KagisoPadi (Mafenya) It was in the year 2000 when it all started; negotiation between the Royal Bafokeng Administration, BRPM, and the Lekgoropaneng leadership took place. This relocation move was to make way for an open cast mining. Promises were made but not all of them were kept.The first houses were built and were not up to standard, people complained and a big strike was up coming, and mid 2000 the Lekgoropane community members marched to the Royal Bafokeng Administrtion offices to hand over their memorandum , the much lead to the rebuilding of the house. Regardless of the all enticing promises not all members of the community were satisfied by being relocated to Mafenya. It was known that some amount was set aside for the maintenance of the bucket system toilet, but they were never maintained. People were never happy and satisfied with the relocation, for some benefited more than the others, but life goes on.

STEVEN RAMOKHULA (Ikemeleng)  When mines don’t provide with accommodation, then Ikemeleng should provide. Ikemeleng is a mining community in Kroondal just seven kiolometres outside Rustenburg. It is in the centre of five mining companies which are Xstrata, Samancor, Lanxess, Aquarius and Anglo American Platinum. One of the main issues facing the community of Ikemeleng is over population. The surrounding mining companies play a very big role in the increasing population within Ikemeleng. People come from different parts of the continent and country to seek employment. We have people from Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana and nationwide. All these people came to seek employment to improve their standards of living. Most of these people are attracted by mining activities taking place around Ikemeleng community. Floods of job-seekers flock towards the community because of the surrounding mines. Every month the population withi...

TAKATSO TONTSI (Marikana) Sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from the house and come and commercial building to disposal or treatment. The system of sewers is called sewage. The sewage system in Marikana is a problem, now that there is water everywhere on the streets from the sewers of the houses. They are houses with blocked and burst pipes, so the water flows to the streets. This sewage is water is a water carrying waste in solution that is intended to be removed from a community. It is more than 99% of water and also contains physical condition, chemical constituents, and bacterial organism. This solution smells very bad as it contains human waste and germs from the bacteria. On the 13 th of June I spoke to Mrs Mphahlele about her neighbours drowning yard. “Her yard might be a dam of sewage water, but the smell goes a long way. She as reported this problem at the municipality offices and they promised to help...

BUTI BOTOPELA (Ikemeleng) Question is why are people using illegal connected electricity? The users and suppliers do not seem to know the consequences and danger of using illegal electricity. This illegal power connection is unfairly distributed, some people are connected and others are not, it’s all about favours and who can afford a monthly R50 fee paid to the supplier. The community supports the use of illegal power as they believe it will force or push the authority to install electricity in Ikemeleng. The community of Ikemeleng has lived in the dark for years and lived on empty promises with no service delivery at all. The power is from the hostel built by Angburnes who accommodates his employees working at Kroondal Spar, and other form the community Apollo lights which mostly supplies businesses such as taverns, bottle stores, butcheries, and tuck-shops. The wire are loosely connected and not dug in deep, and this is dangerous to people and animals especially dur...

On the early morning of Thursday 14 th the community of Chaneng located on the North of Rustenburg had an eventful beginning to their day where by mother of Chaneng village headman (Nthoto Setshoane) came into the Kgotla office and took the Kgotla stamp that is needed to authorize important documents such as proof of residents forcefully and told the office bearers to inform community members that the stamp will all documents will issued at the headman’s house only as per Royal Bafokeng Admin protocol, she then later came in and took four youth members who needed proof of residents to attach to c.v’s  that were to be submitted on the day at one of the local mines called Platinum Group Metal mine(Masseve), they left with her and she issued them invalid proof of residents, their c.v’s could not be submitted. She later came back and told both office bearers and police that “I hijacked the stamp”. Later on the day there was a community general meeting to address the issue of the r...