'Construction of houses for sludge victims begun'

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12-09-2023
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Sowetan Live
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Mayor confirms slow progress as HRC keeps a keen eye

The South African Human Rights Commission in the Free State says its investigation into the Jagersfontein tragedy is ongoing, saying it was yet to get updates from various government departments.

MD Thabang Kheswa said: “We are more especially concerned about the human settlement issue. We are still investigating the matter.

We are supposed to meet with the government, Cogta [cooperative governance and traditional affairs] and water and sanitation departments to follow up, especially with the human settlement issue. Government has to update us with how far they are with building the houses.

Kopanong municipality mayor Xolani Tseletsele said the community was on Monday updated on what had been done since the tragedy on September 11 2022.

“The main challenge that we have is that victims who are getting their services from different law firms are not being given attention in terms of their livelihood mainly because the mining board has taken an anti-law posture against those victims," said the mayor.

He said the construction of houses had begun.

"There has been progress in regards to building houses for those affected, so I can say that about 16 houses are being built and this is being done by seven local contractors. We also discussed the challenges that were pointed out by residents at the meeting, most of them not understanding why most houses would be renovated and others just rebuilt from scratch," Tseletsele said.

Jagersfontein Development spokesperson Billie Bilankulu said the company had spent over R120m on rehabilitating the land and also finding accommodation for the affected residents and for the payment of medical bills.

“We have been working hand-in-hand with the government. We have spent close to R400,000 in paying for accommodation for residents who have been affected by the disaster. We have found houses in Jagersfontein in which we have been renting to provide housing for the affected residents," said Bilankulu.

He added that the company had been in communication with the department of water and sanitation in making sure that it was safe for people to return to their homes.

“An investigating report was conducted by the department into the waste material surrounding the areas to see if they were still in livable condition. The report came back stating that the waste was not toxic and that we could start with rehabilitation but the department issued a directive stating that we could build and renovate the places but that no one would be allowed to live in them. So we thought that until that directive is lifted, we would start on building these houses to save time.”

Bilankulu further said the company has also spent close to R60m building and refurbishing  houses damaged by the rampant sludge.

"We have 140 households that we are currently assisting with accommodation and we have 70 houses to rebuild as well as 64 houses to refurbish."