Eita,
Feast your eyes on what is clearly not the best photo ever. But, it's the content that's important.
The brown liquid in the lower left-hand corner is acid mine water. The reeds mark the aboveground portion of the Wonderfonteinspruit, a stream used by communities (not ones where politicians or CEOs live, let's put it that way) for irrigation and many other purposes. This water mixes because a dam controlling polluted runoff from mines has a crack in it.
I was tipped off by an activist who was tipped off by a whistleblower, so I investigated. I took this photo while standing on the dam wall, and it quickly became clear that the claims were valid. I then called the CEO of the company responsible -- a mine waste remining company called Mintails Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd -- and without hesitation he admitted to knowing about the problem.
I published this information in Johannesburg's (arguably) flagship daily, and the reaction was....not really anything. So there you have it. Back to work.
Sharp,
Mark
Feast your eyes on what is clearly not the best photo ever. But, it's the content that's important.
The brown liquid in the lower left-hand corner is acid mine water. The reeds mark the aboveground portion of the Wonderfonteinspruit, a stream used by communities (not ones where politicians or CEOs live, let's put it that way) for irrigation and many other purposes. This water mixes because a dam controlling polluted runoff from mines has a crack in it.
I was tipped off by an activist who was tipped off by a whistleblower, so I investigated. I took this photo while standing on the dam wall, and it quickly became clear that the claims were valid. I then called the CEO of the company responsible -- a mine waste remining company called Mintails Mining South Africa (Pty) Ltd -- and without hesitation he admitted to knowing about the problem.
I published this information in Johannesburg's (arguably) flagship daily, and the reaction was....not really anything. So there you have it. Back to work.
Sharp,
Mark