Coupled with Covid-19 is a tinderbox
Down’s Syndrome. The report found that more than two thirds of the respondents in Snake Park complained about respiratory problems, including persistent coughs, sinus issues, asthma and tuberculosis.
This year, the August dust storms in Snake Park will coincide with the expected peak of Covid-19 infections in Gauteng.
Last month, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States underscored the relationship between “long-standing systemic health and social inequities” and Covid-19 infection in the US.
“Racial housing segregation is linked to health conditions, such as asthma and other underlying medical conditions, that put people at increased risk of getting severely ill or dying from Covid-19,” it noted. “Some for myself, for my kids and for the community. We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow, so I say: ‘Only God knows.’ ”
Matlola says nobody has visited Snake Park to talk about the virus. “They don’t come. They don’t care about us,” she says, her arms folded.
Just last week an old man Matlola knows died of the virus.
“It scares me. The only thing I know I must do is pray that God will help us — protect us.”
One thing Matlola and others in the neighbourhood have done to protect themselves is refuse to send children back to school.
Mapule Mavhunga and Nokuthula Tsheole have been “locked up” since they heard of the pandemic. The sisters each take care of children with cerebral palsy, a suspected consequence
of the uranium from the mine.
“I must be very cautious with this child,” Mavhunga says. One person living on her street has died of the virus. “I must buy sanitiser and wash her with Protex soap.”
Mavhunga says she is “110% scared” of the virus. She refuses to send the children to school.
“It can be even three years. As long as this virus is around, they are going nowhere.”
Tsheole says she has become used to the idea of a lockdown, “as long as we can protect ourselves”.
Mavhunga adds: “It is up to each person. Because we can see the numbers are increasing. But some people don’t believe there is this pandemic. They don’t believe it.
“It is up to you. Stay in your house or just be careless about your life.”
Vuyisanani Phongoma, whose family farms goats on a smallholding at the edge of the mine dump, says the conditions in Snake Park — its poverty coupled with the effects of the mine and the surge in Covid-19 infections — are a tinderbox.
“We can’t breathe well. This mine is very dangerous. It’s toxic,” Phongoma says, adjusting his bright blue mask.
Looking at the mine dump, now glistening in the afternoon sun, he adds: “It’s a bomb. It’s a nuclear weapon — and with this Covid-19 thing, it’s going to explode.”
“It’s up to each person. It is up to you. Because we can see the numbers increasing. Stay in your house or just be careless about your life”