CSOs 4 Tailings Justice

Patrick Greenfield and Olga Manda, The Guardian, Fri 13 Mar 2026

While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans.

As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.

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The only way to make mining safe for humans is to remove humans from the mines. But that means hurting livelihoods and jobs.

By Lindsey Schutters, DAILY MAVERICK, 16 Feb 2026

Nestled between Vogelstruisfontein, Mooifontein 225-IQ and Valkfontein 238-IQ are the Soweto townships of Meadowlands and Diepkloof. You could refer to it as a Golden Ghetto, but completely opposite to the trappings of opulence. No, dear reader, this Kasi (and many like those formed around the mine dumps of the Witwatersrand) is a victim of the golden rush.

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13 February 2026, by Lous FM Newsbreak producer Matthew Veeran – As global investors talk multi-billion rand deals at the CTICC this week, a parallel gathering at St. George’s Cathedral is exposing the environmental and social price tags often left out of the corporate narrative. The 17th Alternative Mining Indaba serves as a direct challenge to the industry, insisting that the extraction of SA’s wealth must finally serve the people. The Alternative Mining Indaba is headlined this year by the “100-Year Debt Campaign” which demands reparations from mining giants for a century of community dispossession. Spokesperson Hassen Lorgat explains…

Right to left: Esme, Jan, Obert (ZELO), Kudzwai (SARW), Hassen, Jingjing, Mutuso, Davie (SARW)

Tailings, the mine waste left over after valuable minerals have been extracted, pose an immense threat. As the world witnesses last year in Zambia, when dams storing tailings are breached or collapse, devastation to local communities, waterways, and wildlife ensues. Even when a collapse does not occur, tailings present a constant but overlooked danger by causing air and water pollution, soil contamination, displacement, and more.

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Subtitle: Developing Strategies for Monitoring, Advocacy, and Action 

Hassen Lorgat:  (CSO’s Tailings Working Group. https://csos4tailingsjustice.org/about/)

This workshop marks the finalization of our pilot project aimed at building community awareness and power regarding tailings and mine waste. It excludes for instance our work around advocacy for timeous and inclusive inquiries when disasters take place and general advocacy with chapter 9 organisations in particular the SAHRC to advance knowledge about safety and security for communities living near mine waste and tailings  dams facilities in particular. We commit never to become exhausted in pointing out the devastation of human and animal life and the wider ecology including livelihoods when these dams fail. They fail not only the business but us all.

Note to the reader: this note will be used to assist participants in the workshop on February 5 & 6, 2026 in the  Far West Rand, Gauteng, but is aimed at a long term strategy for citizens, activists and those living near tailings and mine dam facilities.

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SABC News: The final report into the September in the Free State, reveals that the mining company was negligent and non-compliant. Satellite images show the wall had been shifting for years before it finally gave way on 11 September, unleashing over five million cubic metres of sludge. Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo says the report was compiled by experts from the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand over three years. He believes it strengthens government’s case in the criminal proceedings related to the disaster. Mahlobo briefed the community and the media on the findings and actions taken since the incident.