Jagersfontein a ticking time bomb, say residents following dam collapse
Eyewitness News returned to the area to assess the progress in assisting families after the dam collapsed at the diamond mine last September, releasing a mixture of mining waste that demolished the landscape and homes.
The town of Jagersfontein in the Free State has become a barren wasteland after a mine tailings dam collapsed. Picture: Jacques Nelles/Eyewitness News
JAGERSFONTEIN - Residents of the area devastated by the Jagersfontein dam wall collapse last year said the town was a ticking time bomb and urged the government to reconsider dumping waste in the historic open pit mine.
Community members in Charlesville raised concern after the company which owns the mine, Jagersfontein Developments, was permitted to dump the sludgy by-product.
Eyewitness News returned to the mining community to track what progress had been made.
This comes as the town continues to rebuild after the dam burst last September, which claimed three lives and damaged 164 houses.
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Locals said the South African Heritage Resources Agency approved plans to fill the historic Jagersfontein diamond mining pit with waste to relieve pressure on the tailings dam, which burst.
However, resident Lefa Shale said the decision was doing more harm than good.
“It’s from bad to worse because now this is a danger zone… the mine, instead of rebuilding and solving this, now they destroy Jagersfontein because there is nothing happening up to this far.”
Shale called for the national heritage site to be preserved.
“In the near future, you’ll just see the name Jagersfontein, but Jagersfontein [itself] will be no more, destroyed. Now they are busy taking this mud, and they throw it in the open mine, whereby it is history for our children.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Jagersfontein mine dam collapse: What we know so far