Lunchtime Update | Chrome mined illegally in Witrandjie, North West

it's just got lunch time this is all angles here on enca good afternoon I'm matahara so it is that time of the day when we give you an update on how far some of the stories we've been following up for you on Channel today have advanced here's your lunchtime update [Music] our reporters are out and about bringing you the latest on today's top stories we have clearly Tweety Jones in atridgeville at Pretoria is in Johannesburg is in rustenburg let me start with you you're looking at the story about a gas explosion at the zoto special school in atridgeville two people killed and four injured someone has been arrested but I understand that community members want more to be done and do we know what exactly caused the gas explosion foreign who's been arrested was tampering with the gas pipeline as well which eventually led to a gas leak then an explosion the Department of Education though cannot tell as to what could have caused the fire as this matter is still under investigation what we can tell you though is that the alleged perpetrators of course appeared before the court in tswane as well and is expected to be back again on the first of September he's facing charges of murder attempted murder and arson as well meanwhile residents of course have now back down we understand that the Department of Education has convinced them to say they will look into their matters and again that school will resume on Monday the Department of Education says that it is very important that the special School uh called zodun isn't disrupted because it's stealing uh with uh you know pupils social needs as well who need medication and who need other special attention you know and Necessities to ensure that a school does a commenting that they are then look at as well in that school but the residents of course were Furious saying that they want the contractor of which um the employees are working for the ones who died to compensate the families and ensure that they get a dignified a funeral process as well but I I know that this is the discussions that I had between the Department of Education the contractor and of course the agreed residents and we know that it seems as though they have not come to an agreement and that everything will go back to normal schools start operating again on Monday but let's take a listen to what the Department of Education gauteng had to say early on it's lawlessness which cannot be allowed I mean I was engaging with the police to say they can't just be watching it people who are who are who are Lawless and bring it into something I mean they've committed to me that they will then call the mystery law enforcement officers who deal with such incidences to remove this community from the school but what will be happening that on Monday we could make sure that the police must be here and work with us schooling must continue on Monday because I mean what they are raising here it's even Outside The Lending component the teaching component it has nothing to do with what is supposed to be happening in the school and they can't accuse the principal it was yesterday people who came here to say they want to a place where they're dead okay it's not even family members the secondary school where there's been a number of recorded suicides recently five Learners are believed to have ingested a poison leaving two of them dead what's really going on at that school secondary school and I must say it has been a bleak August for the school in terms of those suicides it started around the 7th and the 8th of August where two Learners two girls I'm in grade eight and in grade 12. they ingested poison and passed away as you said and then a few days later then a boy consumed poison in front of his fellow learners but he is said to be recovering a few days after that there were two learn three Learners two girls and a boy who also consumed a poison but they are also said to be recovering it is obviously a Gravely concerning that you would have these incidences that are happening but I have to say that it has been a little bit difficult just trying to get to the bottom of what is going on trying to speak obviously not to the school the school wouldn't be commenting they've directed us to the gauteng Department of Education we try had to get a council award counselor for the area to speak to find out what is going on but they said that they would first need to speak to the principal of the school to understand what is going on we did speak to some community members it was also a little bit strange in some instances where they were happy to to talk to us um off camera just to kind of explain to us what is going on but there were lots more aware of speaking in front of camera some of them to say that you know there's some elements of things that are going on in the community so they wouldn't want to be seen you know some of them just talked about maybe there's uh they talk about maybe the spirits going around the school just given the nature of these suicides are the way that a rat poison seems to be all poison rather seems to be the go-to method for everyone and they are scared that this now might be a trained we might start something in the school they are of course talking about just the psychosocial needs of the community and how maybe the kids are going through things and they would need to speak to people if something is going on but they are all and you know some of them a lot of them actually said that it is heartbreaking that these things are going on and they would like to know what is going on with the kids that they are doing this that this is happening and it isn't even the first time that this happens at this particular school myself they were talking about incidences that happened a few months ago even last year uh where there was a camp that happened and there was a suicide is there and now that this is happening again so what is actually going on with the school as I said the school directed us to the Department of Education and the spokesperson Steve Madonna had this to say about this Gravely concerning situation well the police are investigating circumstances surrounding the death of those that committed suicide and they will you know indicate on how far their investigation is but you know that they will conduct the investigation anytime it's concerning them to conduct that investigation so we'll play by ear and also interact with them and check on the latest development but it's quite concerning what is really happening at the school what we did we are working very closely with different stakeholders sadak came you know forward to say they've got a suicide Trauma Center they then volunteered to give us officials they started actually they've been there the entire week they said they will continue to work with us just to talk to all the Learners before they even think about committing suicide take them through the process check on what is it that they they can do to assist them we also have a partnership with child line chat line their number is 116. and will encourage all Learners who have changed challenges to dial that number there's professionals there that can assist I mean we know that we also saw in karankua the element of some of the cases of suicide that we were reported so Learners need to make sure that they dial that number 116 the professionals are there to assist them to take them through the process if they have challenges so that they don't resort to committing suicide you're out in the Northwest where legal mining has hit uh vitranki the illicit activities are leading to violence environmental Devastation and a growing illegal economy today parliament's mineral resources and energy committee is visiting the area what have they said so far what are they finding well according to them it's really a long way to go in really capping this illegal mining at the time when we're seeing them taking action seeing the law enforcement the agencies taking action including the department of DMR having to take action in particular Johannesburg but it seems like this matter it's it's far uh from over we spoke um earlier on with the chairperson of the portfolio committee who actually had hope earlier on because they visited the area of klerksdorp in stilfontein yesterday that's where their operation started and he's saying that there is a hope that the mines illegal mining rather will be won against but where we come from here in rustenburg in the place called it's a village called maluhale it's a really devastating situation where we are seeing a full swing operation of illegal mining but at this point in time unfortunately no one was arrested because immediately when they saw the vehicles having to arrive including the saps members having to arrive there they ran so the um the department of mineral resources has also acknowledged on the sport the regional leaders who were a power of the program today have also acknowledged to say that indeed we we there's a lot that we still need to do where the uh chairperson said that we were here last year the situation seems to have exacerbated but earlier on before we embarked on the operation we spoke to him and let's listen to what he had to say to us one of the things we have given a warning to the department was that if you will recall the the phenomenon of the summer zamas is predominantly in your gold industry now one of the things we've said that if you look on your Limpopo area in particular and we're now probably were going you don't have zamasamas but the potential that is you drive them out of your gold Minds you will be driving them now to the Chrome as well as Platinum mine and we have started to get reports for recess now that in Limpopo burgersfort there is some minimal of them so we say once we deal with the issue now let's look at how do we avoid but what is going to make my house West that side is that even in this side of the gold industry we are told that it's difficult to trace the past owners probably even if you find them they may not be liable because the legislation do not put an obligation on rehabilitation right that was your enca lunchtime update from all angles with reporters thank you team let's leave it there for now