What an interesting read @jvanman I lived up on the West Rand as a child and left in my early 20's.
I remember the dust that came and settled in the homes after a slight breeze, having read about the water I am not shocked at the findings they have now.
Those mine dumps I heard they were going to try go through the soil again to retrieve anything they may have missed previously, nothing grows on them!
Really a part of history for wealth, but an expense to people living there as how to clean up this mess.
The dust is one of the major problems as it goes into our lungs then bloodstream. Could also contribute to lethargy.
That's one of the remediation efforts. The processing techniques have been improved, and a company in jhb south started on dumps in the east rand. It is quite profitable as they don't spend money on drill bits etc. The problem, however, is that people live so close. As they remove the dum, more dust is disturbed. It is quite environmentally unfriendly to do the reprocessing (they will tell you differently thought).
Thanks for the comment and insight