Selected extracts from South Africa’s environmental legislation: challenges with the management of gold tailings within the Witwatersrand gold fields and case studies

Abstract

For most of its history, the mining industry in South Africa has not been subjected to comprehensive environmental regulation. In recent years, however, this has changed significantly, and the industry is now required to comply with a complex web of mining and environmental policy and legislation. Despite these regulatory advances, we still grapple with legacy issues, namely how to manage decades of environmental degradation, mining waste and long-term residual and latent impacts and how to equitably and fairly apportion duties, responsibilities and liabilities for the remediation of mining waste. An analysis of the Witwatersrand gold fields and the management of its uraniferous waste provides an excellent example of the complexity of these issues and lessons learnt.

An analysis of the vulnerability of informal and formal households to disaster risks in the Rand West City region

“…Literature also attests to mining activities in Bekkersdal having greatly contributed to the various disaster-related risks (Koen et al 2017;Liefferink 2019;Mathende et al 2019).…”

“…Firstly, the Bekkersdal community is unique in that it is largely located in a dolomite area with many sinkholes and acid mine drainage decanting and spillages. Secondly, the community faces many other challenges, such as high levels of water pollution because of the environmentally damaging mining activities in the area, inappropriate land use planning, frequent flooding because of inadequate stormwater management systems, frequent droughts, acute erosion as a result of unstable soil structures and underlying geological factors, rapid urbanisation and a high frequency of uncontrolled veld fires (Ackerman et al 2018;Koen et al 2017Liefferink 2019Marais et al 2018;Van Eeden 2014;West Rand District Municipality [WRDM] 2019). Thus,in understanding the community and household vulnerabilities, the comparison between formal and informal settlements plays a critical role in addressing what the determinants are and what kind of ameliorating measures should be put in place.…”

Legacy Gold Mine Sites & Dumps in the Witwatersrand: Challenges and Required Action

“…They mostly remain unrehabilitated, resulting in the creation of environmental problems such as air pollution through dust and water pollution. This pollution includes groundwater contamination in the form of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) [2].…”

“…Notwithstanding the economic benefits, gold mining in Johannesburg has resulted in numerous mine shafts and vast volumes of mine waste and residue in the form of waste rock dumps and tailings dams that were largely left unrehabilitated. These mine shafts and waste dumps left a legacy that contributes to en-vironmental pollution and ecological degradation through dust and pollution of water resources, which has been witnessed by the public outcry raised by surrounding communities, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and others [2].…”