Urgent ground stability study launched after illegal mining threat exposed
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba alerted the mineral resources department a year ago about threats to critical infrastructure, but it took a media report for it to finally take action
The mineral resources department has embarked on an urgent ground stability study in Johannesburg, a year after warnings about threats to critical infrastructure. The study follows an exclusive report in the Sunday Times revealing that for a year the department had ignored pleas from Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba for urgent interventions to deal with illegal mining. Mashaba made the calls after Transnet and Sasol alerted the city in 2017 to threats illegal miners were posing to their fuel and gas pipelines. The warnings included revelations that illegal miners were using explosives dangerously close to their pipelines which run past critical infrastructure‚ including the M1 and M2 highways and bridges‚ and iconic landmarks‚ including the 94‚000-seater FNB stadium. City infrastructure protection officials told the Sunday Times a breach of the pipelines would result in a blast radius of 300m, where everything would be incinerated. In a statement released on Monday‚ the mineral res...
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