Strongman Mpangana reprinted with permission from
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 185-186

. . . Most of our workers are having TB, but we don't know whether they have lung cancer or whatever because hospitals have been built around the mines where these workers are treated, and the mine doctors who are examining these workers keep the information secret.
Beside rockfalls and rockburst, which kills more than 800 workers a year, more and more workers are being killed by different kinds of diseases including leukemia. Health and safety standards are not adhered to. Paper masks are given to workers to protect themselves from dust and toxic gases. Little or no water is used underground to put the dust low. Workers are not informed about the dangers of uranium, which is part of the mineral they are extracting.

Father John (Moderator)

Thank you. We still have a second guest also from South Africa. Please, introduce yourself.



Strongman Mpangana

Strongman Mpangana, South Africa. Health and safety officer of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa (NUM).

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters! We are very happy to get this chance to come to talk about this killer which is surrounding us in South Africa. We would also like to thank AKAFRIK [Arbeitskreis Afrika, Munster] for giving us the chance of coming up to say just a bit to you because we are not really aware of what is taking place in our country.

We knew nothing of uranium before we came here, but since we were with you for the whole week, there is one or two things which we have grabbed, which we believe is going to help our people.

South Africa is a very beautiful country, and it lies in the southern part of Africa, right at the bottom, and I think it is the last born of Africa. It has many kinds of minerals of which I could only name a few. We have got gold, we have got diamond, we have got nickel, coal, manganese, copper, uranium, chrome, but to name a few. Like in other countries in the Third World, it was also under the colonial rule since the arrival of the white man in 1652. In 1867, diamond was discovered around Kimberly in the Northern Cape. Gold was also discovered in 1886 at the Witwatersrand Area where Johannesburg is situated today. If you come to South Africa, you just look around, you will see many dumps around there. Those are the first mines in South Africa.

This mineral is partly mixed with uranium, or I could say, uranium is a by-product of gold. Since the discovery of this mineral in our country, blacks were forced to the different Bantustans and were prohibited to live in or around the industrial area which covers more than 80 percent of our land. The migrant labor system was introduced, our families were separated indiscriminately by this system, whereby our fathers were compelled to live in the compound for more than twelve months without their beloved ones. So, this was sort of a contract which has been taken by our fathers to go and work in the underground. In the Witwatersrand Area, the western Transvaal and the Orange Free State are areas where gold and uranium dumps are clearly visible. These waste dumps are lying there since the inception of mining in South Africa, more than 100 years ago. There are townships which were developed around these dumps where blacks are living. Uranium is also separated from gold in the processing plants around these mines. These minerals are taken to the market in the European countries, where, we don't know. But if we are told it is going somewhere to the market, it is either to England or Germany or wherever. Some of the uranium is being applied for our plant near Pretoria. This is the plant which we believe is where those white bosses are trying to make weapons from this uranium. But, unfortunately, we don't know because blacks are not allowed to even look at that plant. You are sent away a hundred meters before you even reach the plant. Dumps of these minerals became artificial hills, fenced by accessible barbed wires. The wastes in the tailings dumps are not covered effectively, which means one can simply go into the barbed wire fenced dumps and sometimes children go around playing and drinking.

Evaporation takes place, and the uncovered surface is exposed to wind that's threatening the nearby residents, and if it is raining, these dumps are being washed away into the nearby rivers which flow many kilometers away from Johannesburg or the surroundings, and this water is being drunk by the indigenous people of South Africa. The animals which are kept in the reserves, in the Kruger National Park and so forth, are all depending on this water.

To come to health and safety, our workers are compelled to work in a very dangerous situation. Every year they are trying to do something like competitions for the miners who are working underground and on the surface, they are trying to make them compete on health and safety, but this is not a true reflection of the health and safety we are looking at. Most of our workers are having TB, but we don't know whether they have lung cancer or whatever because hospitals have been built around the mines where these workers are treated, and the mine doctors who are examining these workers keep the information secret.

Beside rockfalls and rockburst, which kills more than 800 workers a year, more and more workers are being killed by different kinds of diseases including leukemia. Health and safety standards are not adhered to. Paper masks are given to workers to protect themselves from dust and toxic gases. Little or no water is used underground to put the dust low. Workers are not informed about the dangers of uranium, which is part of the mineral they are extracting.

I'll come to the nuclear power stations. We have the Koeberg Power Plant which is situated in the Karoo region in the Cape province. This power plant has been in operation for several years now. The waste of this plant is transported by trucks to the Namaqua Land area where it is dumped in the underground and sealed off by concrete. This waste is today one of the potential contaminators of the underground waters of our country. There is no information about the dangers of this plant. The workers are told that there is no danger, it is safe to work in there. To date, our people living in this areas do not know the causes of the many diseases they are suffering from.

To conclude, I would like to indicate to the world that in the Orange Free State, the Gladsdorp(?) Area and the Witwatersrand Area, I believe from the findings of this Hearing, that there is low level radiation and I also believe that the people who live around Koeberg Power Station and around Namaqua Land where the waste is dumped, are also in great danger because they are not informed what will happen in a few years. People who keep drinking the water from the nearby rivers, their cattle heading around where this waste is dumped, that is going to be a danger to them.

I'll add to the outside countries and all who are interested in coming to assist us, to make researches and do whatever you can so that we might be in a picture to save more generations to come.

Lastly, I would like to thank the organizers of this Hearing and all those who attended here, and all those who have given their presentation. It was a very big education to us. From the union side where I'm coming from, I'll now be able to inform them that we are in danger of radiation all around South Africa because all the gold mines are having uranium. I have learned that uranium is a by-product of gold. I thank the writers of this book who have given it to me, that something has been said. Really, on our side, there was nothing that we knew before, so maybe from the experiences and from the little information that I got here we will be able to take campaigns to run around and try to save our population.

Forward with the struggles against uranium, forward!