Toxic Storm Brewing In Sowetos Snake Park Neighbourhood

In Snake Park, the evidence of sickness is written in gold dust. Its source towers over the Soweto neighbourhood: a mine dump, loaded with toxic metals, relics of an era when South Africa produced about a third of all the gold ever mined on Earth.

The mining companies left behind whats known as mine tailings hazardous waste that has damaged the health of nearby communities. And now, with climate change, the dump is even more dangerous, leaving residents caught between an environmental disaster of the past and the gathering storms of the future.

Community activist Thokozile Mntambo is gearing up for battle. Her weapons of war: a laptop and a questionnaire. She and her fellow volunteers have gone door to door in Snake Park, interviewing their neighbours, young and old, people living with disabilities, parents who have children with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses like asthma and lung cancer.

For her, the evidence of sickness is painfully personal.

My sister gave birth to a child with cerebral palsy, she told Bhekisisa s TV programme, Health Beat . Mntambo works with the Bench Marks Foundation , a nonprofit that monitors multinational companies, on community training and workshops.