Radiation forces residents out of township

Residents of Joburg's Tudor Shaft township will be relocated because of the levels of radiation in the area.

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People living in the Tudor Shaft informal settlement on Johannesburg's West Rand will be relocated because of the levels of radiation in the area, Mogale City Municipality said on Friday.

“The municipality was advised in writing by the National Nuclear Regulator of the outcome of their radiological survey they conducted on the settlement in July 2010,” spokesperson Nkosana Zali said in a statement.

“A recommendation was made for the relocation of the families to more habitable land because of the threat of the families being “exposed to elevated levels of internal and external radiation due to radioactivity in the tailings material”.”

He said the municipality would be moving the families from the area in phases.

Thirty-five of 197 affected families were supposed to be moved on Friday but because of the weather conditions a decision was taken to move the families on Monday, February 21.

The families were prioritised because they lived near a slime dam and had been adversely affected by floods.

Zali said the municipality would ensure that the relocation happened smoothly and that families were given habitable land while long term solutions were being found.

Most families in the area had applied for government-subsidised housing and would soon benefit from human settlement programmes underway in Mogale City, he said.

“All of these efforts are aimed at ensuring that because a decision to relocate people has been taken, then it is done in a humane manner.” -

Sapa

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/radiation-forces-residents-out-of-township-1.1028856

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