‘We are just waiting to die’: Free State residents drowning in poisoned water

For more than three years, 68‑year‑old Mmathabo Mabaso has watched her home and health collapse under the weight of polluted water and raw sewage seeping into her backyard in Nyakallong, Free State.

Behind her cracked walls lies Voëlpan Dam – known locally as “stinkpan” – a foul‑smelling reservoir of mining discharge and municipal failure.

Despite investigations by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and a Free State High Court in Bloemfontein ruling against the Matjhabeng municipality, the crisis persists.

The concerns are compounded by previous testing of water collected by a community monitoring team and the Bench Marks Foundation, which found concentrations of arsenic, lead, copper, silicon and uranium.

The 2024 findings raised concerns about risks associated with exposure to the substances. According to the report, the water from Harmony Gold’s target mine contains “total dissolved solids in high quantities, which are dangerous to humans”.

‘Raw sewage seeping from the floor’

For Mabaso, the danger is real.

“I have water with raw sewage seeping from the floor, the walls are damp, and my furniture has been destroyed,” she said, adding that her backyard is unusable.

Houses are waterlogged.

Residents have reported constant headaches and breathing difficulties, with many suffering from asthma. Mabaso said the crisis began in 2022, when water from mining operations was pumped into the Voëlpan Dam, eventually flooding a sewerage pumping system.

Since then, raw sewage has been dumped in the dam. Her four-bedroom house, which she built with her entire savings, is now a death trap.

“When it rains heavily, the entire house is flooded with foul-smelling water. No one should live like this. We are just waiting to die here,” she said.

“I am sick, my grandchildren are sick, and nobody cares. The mine destroyed the community.”

Mabaso also blamed the mining industry for the 2018 death of her husband, who suffered from silicosis he contracted while working for Harmony Gold.

Does government care?

She said years of attempts to rescue them from the dreadful environment have been futile. Mabaso remembered how over a year ago her then 12-year-old granddaughter leapt into the dam to rescue her then six-year-old brother, who fell into the water trying to retrieve his ball.

“What frustrates me more is that our crisis is well documented. We are people, and we pay our dues, but this is how our government is treating us. They are even embarrassed to come and campaign here,” she said.

Mabaso’s experience is shared by other residents living alongside the polluted dam, where sewage, contaminated water and flooding have turned some homes into unsafe spaces.

At least 77 homes have been deemed uninhabitable, some destroyed, with Simon Lenyane, 50, who has lived in Nyakallong since the early ’90s, saying they would have moved if they had an option.

Almost all of the affected homes were those of elderly people like his frail mother, he said.

A 2023 community monitoring investigation recorded rising water levels at Voëlpan, including flooding of streets, the submergence of a power station and the collapse of nearby houses.

Mmathabo Mabaso’s house is on the brink of collapsing.

SAHRC investigation

The contamination has a significant mining component.

In its 2024 inquiry into service delivery in the Free State, the SAHRC recommended residents living close to Voëlpan Dam be relocated, and the area’s sewerage system be repaired.

The commission found Matjhabeng Municipality had put residents’ lives at risk. In October 2024, the High Court found Matjhabeng Municipality had failed in its constitutional duties to provide sustainable services and promote a safe and healthy environment.

Yet, more than a year later, residents remain trapped between a polluted dam and failing sanitation infrastructure.

The promised relocation of about 77 families has become a source of frustration.

The provincial government has previously acknowledged the urgency of moving residents away from the hazardous environments, but the 2025 December deadline has passed.

On 29 August, the danger posed by mining-related water bodies was brought home when two boys, Thabo Diloko, 9, and Lethabo Abrahams, 8, drowned in a mine dam near Harmony Gold’s Target 2 Rock Dump in Allanridge.

Harmony Gold spokesperson Chipo Morapedi-Mrara said the company has established and invested in two water treatment plants at Target.

She said currently all water is treated on-site and no discharge goes into the dam.

Harmony started assisting the affected community members to relocate to emergency structures in February 2023, she said. This relocation was a temporary solution to house those affected, while the government embarks on a more sustainable, long-term solution, she added.