Johannesburg - Beyond the haze of the hulking Iscor steel mill's grime and steam lies Vanderbijlpark, the industrial town at the centre of a scam, which has equal parts of dirt and heat.
The scale of the Krion pyramid scheme is such that the local municipality, Emfuleni, wants the Vaal Research Group to investigate the economic effect it has had on this depressed region.
The investors' representative, Chris Edeling, says in his report to the master of the Pretoria high court that Tielman Slabbert of Vista University has been commissioned to research the effect of the scheme on the local economy.
More than 9 500 people, mostly living in the Vaal Triangle, were lured by the potential reward of a high return on their investment.
The actual reward, however, is the painful process of the liquidation of the Krion estate.
Some investors used payouts from medical boarding, retrenchment packages and pensions to invest in the scheme.
Slabbert says information from the liquidation of the Krion estate will be used in assessing the investment needed in the local economy for sufficient job creation over the next 10 years.
"The aim of the research is to portray the state of the Emfuleni economy and to make projections for the next 10 years ... Emfuleni houses 12 percent of Gauteng's population, while only 6 percent of Gauteng's income is generated ."
Krion's kingpin, Marietjie Prinsloo, started with a string of microlending businesses in the Vanderbijlpark area.
When her growing businesses required more money for loans, Prinsloo hatched the idea in 1998 of inviting people to invest and be paid 10 percent interest a month, an effective annual return of 120 percent if investors took a monthly dividend payment.
But the microloans were only earning about 30 percent interest.
Edeling says that after a while "the tail started wagging the dog ... the incoming investment funding soon became the major business activity and developed into a pyramid scheme".
This business was liquidated in July last year, leaving many investors with no income at all.
One destitute investor said he had no water or lights and had to be out of his house by the end of the month. He did not know where he would take his family.
The total investment in the scheme was R1 579 645 983.76.
Mary Krugel, who is part of the Vaal Triangle Support Group, says some investors took their retrenchment packages and invested the whole amount, intending to live off the interest in an attempt to maintain the standard of living they had while they were employed.
"Sometimes you just can't help these people, they just stand in my office and cry," Krugel says.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another member of the support group, which represents about 500 people, says he does not believe the average investor attended school beyond standard five (grade 7).
"You must understand the mentality of a lot of the investors, if they have a rand in their hand, it must go - they have to spend it," he says.
"One investor I know was earning R20 000 a month from the interest and he spent it all, he has nothing left, and I don't know how he is going to repay it.
"One family I know, all they own is a car and a house. The wife has a job, but he is a car guard and some days he only earns R13. Are they going to take their house away?" he asks.
Some people invested as much as R7 million in the scheme.
The investors have decided to pursue a private criminal prosecution and it is expected that Business Against Crime and the director of public prosecutions will respond to the proposed action within the next month.
A trust fund has also been set up to help investors who have been financially ruined through the scheme.
There are reports of great unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the administration of this fund, which has reportedly only assisted three investors.
The anonymous support group member says investors from Vanderbijlpark and its surroundings, who attended a meeting on Thursday night, were very emotional about the pace and the focus of the liquidation.
The Pretoria high court ruled in February that the scheme was illegal and all contracts were null and void.
Investors were ordered to pay back all the money they had received from the scheme.
As the Vaal Triangle Support Group member says: "The Krion saga is only beginning."