JOHANNESBURG - Mayor Herman Mashaba said on Thursday he was concerned about apparent inaction by the national government to curb illegal mining which threatened critical bulk infrastructure and posed an imminent disaster in the city of Johannesburg.
Mashaba said the activities could also contaminate the city’s water supply and had resulted in tremors, risking the structural integrity of roads and adjacent residential communities and businesses.
"Yesterday, I once again wrote to the minister of mineral resources Gwede Mantashe, requesting his support and intervention with regard to illegal mining with the use of explosives near highways, Transnet bulk fuel supply and SASOL gas pipelines travelling across the City," Mashaba said.
"Of significance is the Nasrec precinct where the pipelines intersects with Sasol gas lines. Investigations have revealed that if illegal mining activity continues within these old mining shafts, the entire precinct, including the iconic FNB stadium, could go down in ruins as a result of unstable earth directly underneath the area."
Mashaba, whose Democratic Alliance runs the city, after unseating South Africa's ruling African National Congress, said his pleas for authorities to act, including the department of cooperative governance, provincial police and the premier, had fallen on deaf ears.