DESPAIR IN FORGOTTEN MINING TOWN
Former thriving town descends into ruin after firm’s closure
THABO Phangwa, 36, once a promising entrepreneur, ran a successful bakery business feeding thousands of mineworkers and sometimes TV stars who had come to film in his village.
“Back then times were good. Business was booming. I’d make a profit of about R10 000 a fortnight.
“I employed three people to help me run my business,” Phangwa said.
His bakery was situated on a hill in the middle of Blyvoor village where Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine near Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, mined for seven decades until it closed shop in 2013.
The company left behind deferred dreams and starving families who fell prey to illegal miners.
Phangwa, a Lesotho national, came to Carletonville in 1996 and immediately got employed at Blyvooruitzicht where he worked for two years before he lost his job.
“I could not go back to my country because there was nothing there for me. I had to do something and so I started the small bakery business.”
The bakery ran alongside a takeaway shop and a bank. At the back of the building were rooms and bathrooms for tenants.
Opposite the shopping centre was a pristine and well-equipped stadium and netball court owned by Blyvooruitzicht where provincial tournaments were hosted. The streets leading to the hostels had a fire station and hospital that were regularly serviced.
Blyvooruitzicht was the first company to mine the West Witwatersrand line in 1942. By the 1960s it boasted the highest earning per capita in the world. Its financial success filtered down to its over 1 700 employees who enjoyed all-day free meals, discounted housing, electricity and water supply and recreational centres among other basic services.
The area was bustling with so much economic activities that producers of the TV soap used the village for its distinctive “mining town” features to shoot the earlier episodes of the show when it began in 1998.
“Those were great times. I had money and everything that I wanted. People knew me and I even sold to the cast of Isidingo when they came here,” Phangwa said.
When the price of gold fell to record lows in late 2012, Blyvooruitzicht was affected and struggled to get back on its feet. Suddenly, mining operations became too expensive and the company had no choice but to shut down. It immediately went into liquidation.
That’s when things started to go wrong for Phangwa and the villagers. The area now resembles a scene from an apocalypse movie because of vandalism by illegal miners after the company left.
Vandals have pounced on the village’s water infrastructure and electricity transformers in search of metal parts to sell as scrap, leaving families without water, including those from a nearby informal settlement. Several buildings, a hospital, shops and the stadium have not been spared.
“I had no electricity and water. Suddenly people were not buying and I could not keep up with my bills. I wanted to stay open but it became difficult. I had to ignore my pride and close the business the same year the mine left.”
The peach building where he ran the bakery has been vandalised as well as the six shafts and five hostels which illegal miners have now occupied. They have also taken some of the 51 houses the company had given to its workers. Phangwa has been surviving on piece jobs with the hope that Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine will reopen its doors.
According to reports, Randlord Consolidated Mines has shown interest and pledged to spend over R100-million to revive operations from next year. Zanele Kanyiwe, a resident of Blyvoor since 1998, said they have been forgotten.
“We fell on hard times when the mine left. We used to have flushing toilets and electricity and now we have to fetch water in buckets from a single communal tap that caters for hundreds of people. The government tells us that we are not their problem because this land belongs to the mine.”
Over 200 pupils at Ekuphakameni Primary School also use buckets to flush toiilets. They can’t use airconditioners because of lack of electricity.
“It’s a sad situation. Sometimes learners go for a day without eating because there is no gas to cook for them. Lack of water has also added a challenge of germs being spread around the school,” said a member of the school governing body.