Jagersfontein dam collapse: 'Mom slipped from my grasp, I never saw her again'

JOHANNESBURG - Families affected by the Jaggerfontein mine dam collapse continue to count their losses almost a year after the deadly tragedy.

One such family is the Mokhali children who lost a parent when a thunderous rush of grey sludge hit the Free State community seven months ago.

At least three people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

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Eyewitness News returned to the town this week to find that residents were still living in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The grey sludge that engulfed this area has now hardened, and turned stretches of neighbourhoods and grassy fields into an ashen wasteland.

Twenty-one-year old Kamohelo Mokhali walked along the ruins of Charlesville and pointedEyewitness News to his ramshackle house - which is nestled against the backdrop of more than 100 destroyed homes.

He recalled the moment his mother Mantele Mokhali was swept away by the muddy waste.

“My mom and I jumped over the fence at the back to run in a different direction, but the muddy water was coming in the same direction. I was holding her hand but then she slipped from my grasp. That was the last time I saw her. I never saw my mom again.”

Seven months later, the 50-year-old wife and mother of two is still unaccounted for, while the government and the owners of the mine have seemingly moved on.

It’s understood search and recovery efforts for Mokhali were called off in November last year, but the family said officials did not even bother to inform them about this.