Illegal mining sinkhole threat to Joburg roads, businesses

Across parts of Johannesburg, roads are collapsing into underground voids, factories are being cut off from transport routes, sinkholes are opening inside residential estates, and businesses in busy commercial corridors are discovering tunnels beneath their premises, as illegal miners strip away the support pillars once designed to stabilise the ground above.

Illegal mining sinkhole threat to Joburg roads, businesses. Across parts of Johannesburg, roads are collapsing into underground voids, factories are being cut off from transport routes, sinkholes are opening inside residential estates, and businesses in busy commercial corridors are discovering tunnels beneath their premises, as illegal miners strip away the support pillars once designed to stabilise the ground above. During an oversight tour last week with the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and Kenny Kunene, the mayoral committee member (MMC) responsible for transport, media visited some of the areas now being destabilised by illegal mining activity beneath the city’s surface. From Roodepoort and Booysens to Wemmer and Witpoortjie, the damage is spreading far beyond abandoned mine dumps – leaving the City of Johannesburg facing infrastr...