Mining companies have left behind what are known as mine tailings, hazardous waste that has damaged the health of nearby communities. (Photo: Justin Barlow / Bhekisisa) 
In Snake Park, the evidence of sickness is written in gold dust. Its source towers over the Soweto neighbourhood: a mine dump, loaded with toxic metals, relics of an era when South Africa produced about a third of gold ever mined on Earth.
The mining companies left behind what’s known as mine tailings, hazardous waste that has damaged the health of nearby communities. And now, with climate change, the dump is even more dangerous, leaving residents caught between an environmental disaster of the past and the gathering storms of the future.
Community activist Thokozile Mntambo is gearing up for battle. Her weapons of war: a laptop and a questionnaire. She and her fellow volunteers have gone door to door in Snake Park, interviewing their neighbours; young and old, people living with disabilities, parents who have children with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses like asthma and lung cancer.
For her, the evidence of sickness is painfully personal.
The science behind the sickness
“My sister gave birth to a child with cerebral palsy,” she told Bhekisisa’s TV programme, Health Beat. Mntambo works with the Bench Marks Foundation, a nonprofit that monitors multinational companies, on community training and workshops.
“My mom passed away because she had breathing problems. My brother has asthma. I’m also asthmatic.” Every time Mntambo goes to the clinic, they ask if she smokes. “I don’t smoke, but they can see when they’re doing X-rays, there’s a lot of dust in my lungs ... and it’s not only happening to me, it’s happening to everyone.”
Years of scientific research support her concerns.
“It’s a gold mine dump, and scientists that have measured the contents of those mine dumps have found arsenic, lead, mercury,” says Angela Mathee, chief specialist of the South African Medical Research Council’s environment and health research unit.
Lead exposure alone, she explains, has been associated with cognitive issues such as reductions in IQ scores, difficulties in learning and violent behaviours. But it also damages the kidneys, and because of that, says Mathee, “there’s a higher risk of high blood pressure, and in turn a higher risk of cardiovascular disease”.
A 2024 Canadian study of about 1.5-million mother-baby pairs backs up Mntambo’s belief about the polluted air and her niece’s cerebral palsy. Researchers found a link between the mother’s exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and cerebral palsy in the baby.
This research, of course, doesn’t mean there’s proof that Mntambo’s niece’s cerebral palsy was, without a doubt, caused by the mine tailings dams in her community. But it does confirm that there’s a link between dirty air and babies being born with the condition in these environments — and underscores the urgent need for research like this to be sped up.
And the extreme heat that comes with climate change is increasing these health risks.
Asthma
“For example, in someone who has asthma, an attack is often triggered by air pollution,”
style="font-weight: 400;">says Caradee Wright, a public health specialist who leads the climate change and health research programme at the Medical Research Council. “When it’s very hot, the body’s ability to deal with heat is compromised because the person faces an existing health challenge.”
Studies show that air pollution alone is associated with a 5% increase in death rates, while heatwaves are associated with a 6% increase.
“You might naturally expect that if the two are combined — so if you are exposed to air pollution during a heatwave — you'd have an 11% increase in mortality,” Mathee told Health Beat. “But what those studies in Europe show, unexpectedly, is that instead, you have a 21% increase. So it’s just this shocking, unexpected mortality rate that just shows the cumulative impact of those two scenarios on health.”
The changing climate also threatens the physical stability of these toxic sites.
Eric Mokuoa from the Bench Marks Foundation warns of catastrophe.
“We have global warming, this environmental catastrophe that is now happening, where you have extreme heat, extreme rains,” he said, pointing to a crack that has already formed in a tailings dam, something that could be further damaged by flooding. “The worst case scenario with the extreme weather is for it to entirely break into that community.”
New era, new threats
The answer should be to clean up the dumps. That’s what Mntambo and her friends tried to do by planting sunflowers that would soak up toxins from the soil. But now, she says, they’re not allowed on the dump, and the sunflower project has died.
“Companies are not consulting (our) communities, but they receive mining licences while communities are being affected by the environmental degradation," Mntambo says, pointing to Pan African Resources, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and now holds a licence to re-mine the site.
“Our concurrent environmental rehabilitation of these historic tailings deposits is already improving air and water quality in the area,” the company touts
