Jagersfontein disaster: Deputy President Mashatile promises victims houses

More than eight months after a tsunami mudslide from a local mine swept through the township of Charlesville, Jagersfontein in the Free State, destroying homes, displacing more than 1 000 people with nine people still missing and at least one person dead, Deputy President Paul Mashatile has told residents not to expect change “overnight” .

He was speaking to the media during his visit to Jagersfontein yesterday after promising those displaced that homes will be built for all of them in six months.

The mud from the collapsed tailings dam has since turned what used to be a functional community full of life into dust.

Restoration

However, Mashatile said this would soon be a thing of the past, and also promised that activity in the area would be restored.

“If we work together, I believe we will resolve the issues of this community sooner, to make sure they go back to normality,” he said.

When The Citizen visited the area last month, residents expressed their frustrations with the slow pace at which their houses were being built.

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Death

Resident Motlalepule Mosala, who lost her grandfather in the disaster, told the publication the mine had done nothing for them, except for paying monthly rent for a shack the family occupies.

Mosala’s grandfather was swept away by the mudslide on the day of the disaster and his body was only recovered on 30 September.

“We will never forget that day. If there was progress on the side of the mine, maybe things would be better – but nothing.

“We don’t even know how long they will continue to pay the rent because, the last time we had a meeting, they asked for six weeks so they can find out if the dam will not cause a problem again.”

This is despite the fact that the mine said it would immediately provide R20 million to assist the residents and the neighbouring community – but residents told The Citizen only three show houses had been built and displaced families were only rented one room or shacks as relief.

Mashatile said the mine had agreed it would build the houses. “We met them this morning (yesterday) and they have made the commitment that they are going to assist [the residents] because this is a disaster emanating from their dam,” he said.

“We thought let us come and see if they have started to assist affected families.” Mashatile said they were also pleased the mine did not run away from taking responsibility for the disaster. “They are here, they’ve come forward, we are engaging them,” he said.

Responsibility

“We’re going to make sure they take full responsibility like building the houses, sorting out what has affected the residents but we as government will also play our role.

You can see with the show houses that they’ve now started. People should be able to return to their homes in the next six months and be properly settled.”

He said the government was also assisting the residents with short-term interventions to provide relief. “Some need trauma counselling, some were physically hurt, and some lost their loved ones, so there is a lot of work that is happening.

The premier is also bringing the MEC for social development to help work with the communities. At the end of the day, we want the community to return back to normality.”

He said after houses are built, they’d like to see local economic activities. “We want to put people in houses and their local economic activity to benefit from.

“The premier has identified projects like the solar project that can provide 6 000 jobs, and there are also a number of opportunities that would come.”

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