The toxic storm brewing in Soweto’s Snake Park

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. With fellow volunteers she has 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 supports her concerns.

“It’s a gold mine dump, and scientists who have measured the contents of those mine dumps have found arsenic, lead, mercury,” says Prof Angela Mathee, chief specialist in the environment and health research unit at the the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).

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. 

“For example, in someone who has asthma, an attack is often triggered by air pollution,” says Caradee Wright, a public health specialist who leads the climate change and health research programme at the SAMRC. “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 of 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 says, pointing to a crack that has already formed in the 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 the licence to remine the site.

“Our concurrent environmental rehabilitation of these historic tailings deposits is already improving air and water quality in the area,” the company says on its website.

Company spokesperson Hethen Hira told Health Beat that the rehabilitation process began in October 2024, and that it is planning a health check later this year to see if there’s any risk from radiation. Hira said independent reports, which Bhekisisa has seen copies of, found that “the facility was assessed to be safe and not in danger of collapsing”.

For Mathee, the urgency is clear: “We’re living in a new era with new threats, and so we need new standards, and we need new approaches to the protection of public health.”

In Snake Park, those new approaches will need to include the community’s voice. 

“We want change, and we want people in communities to be involved in decision-making,” Mntambo says. “You don’t just come with a jargon of papers and expect people who are illiterate to read 100 copies of the environmental assessment. It doesn’t make sense. Make it simple for communities to understand.”

After Health Beat aired in November, representatives of Pan African met Mntambo and Mariette Liefferink, the founder of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, which has been fighting for the rights of communities affected by mining for 18 years, at a coffee shop in Krugersdorp. They promised to hold community workshops, conduct health tests and work on better controlling the dust that ends up in the homes and lungs of the residents.

Since taking over, Pan African says it has cleared the channels around the tailings to help direct excess rainwater away from spilling into nearby homes.

On January 31, Pan African hosted a follow-up visit from the Church of England Pensions Board and other investment partners in the mine, along with Liefferink, to check on the improvements on the site.

The next step in the process to remine the area is an environmental impact assessment — a detailed investigation of how mining will affect the environment and nearby communities.

But Pan African says it won’t remine the Snake Park area for a few years because it’s so far away from its plant. “However, the ongoing remedial work will ensure rehabilitation is maintained and minimal impact to the environment,” says Hira.

Mntambo says that in January she was invited to a “capacity-building” workshop hosted by representatives of Pan African, where several local nonprofits were trained on how to formally register their groups and raise funds for their work. The health problems caused by mining were not discussed.

“We eat your dust. We find it in our food. We find in our houses every day, and since you have started building the sand walls and cutting the trees, the dust has become [worse] in the community.” 

This article is based on Bhekisisa’s Health Beat programme on climate change, which was broadcast on eNCA on November 24 2024, as well as follow-up interviews conducted by our team in March 2025. The quote from Wright is from an October 29 2023 Health Beat programme on lung disease and air pollution.

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.