"It is not uncommon for African governments to exploit the poor and marginalized for perceived gains in the interest of the strong multinational companies and a few local beneficiaries.
"Endowed with vast natural resources such as wild animals, unique flora and fauna, rivers, lakes and minerals such as copper, uranium, zinc, diamonds and silver to mention but a few, many governments in Africa, rather than improving the lives of their citizens end up piling misery on the vulnerable in society.
"Take the mining of uranium for instance. It holds so much promise on the face of it but deep down the layers of reality, one sees that only multinational companies, corrupt government officials among
them, only a token few locals benefit from its exploitation."

Download the report. 

A critical evaluation of the challenges facing dust management within gold mining regions of South Africa  by JJ Martins

Extract:

"...the biggest challenge within this area is that neither districts nor gold mines receive any assistance nor do they report to government with regards to their dust management programme. This poses a challenge as it limits both the district‟s and gold mines ‟ability to enforce and improve their dust management programmes. The lack of use of information provided by interested and affected parties (Paragraph 4.3.8) within the dust management plan of both the district and gold mines is a major challenge as deposition-dust regulations were initiated to protect the public and their property ... in the first place. The biggest challenge, however, as identified in the study for this focus area is the lack of specialist involvement in dust management plans and programmes of both districts and gold mines ... There are, however, implications regarding the capacity of consultants rendering services as air-quality specialists ....). It is the view of the author that when it comes to using consultants a clear distinction should be made between dust management and monitoring as the necessary qualifications relevant to each of the areas are totally different. It was confirmed by questionnaires to specialists ... that there is a general lack of scientific knowledge within dust management. It is furthermore the author's view that to render air-quality services specifically pertaining to monitoring one should at least have a tertiary qualification in science."

An abridged report (not inclusive of all the activities) of some of the FSE’s activities during January, 2014 which may be of interest or relevance:

Mariette Liefferink presented "Radiological Impacts, Health Risks and Hazards  to Staff and Students of the Crown Mine Art and Music College pertaining to Mine Residue Deposits".

The opening statement of the presentation sets the scene for serious risk to ecosystems, the life sustaining ecological systems on which we rely -