{"id":286804,"date":"2018-11-25T07:10:59","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T05:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=286804"},"modified":"2018-11-25T08:01:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T06:01:34","slug":"parts-of-johannesburg-could-explode-or-collapse-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/286804\/parts-of-johannesburg-could-explode-or-collapse-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Parts of Johannesburg could explode or collapse due to illegal mining: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Illegal mining has put several key Johannesburg landmarks at risk.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2018-11-23-special-report--underground-tunnels-have-joburg-on-shaky-ground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, both Transnet and Sasol have sounded the alarm on illegal miners (<em>zama zama<\/em>s) who are blasting within metres of highly flammable gas and fuel lines under Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<p>Should one of those lines be damaged, everything within a 300 metres radius will be incinerated.<\/p>\n<p>The report notes that this includes the M1 double-decker highway, the M2, sections of Soweto and the 94,000-seat FNB Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is a rupture at FNB Stadium, which has gas pipelines running past it, it and the homes around it are gone,&#8221; said Johannesburg\u2019s Infrastructure Protection Unit head, Conel Mackay.<\/p>\n<p>He added that there have already been a number of near misses in the Florida and Riverlea areas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In some places miners were 30cm from striking the pipes. Miners are using explosives near the Langlaagte fuel depot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the City of Johannesburg has known about the issue for over a year, national government is yet to respond, says the city&#8217;s mayor, Herman Mashaba.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not if a disaster will strike, but when. Johannesburg is a ticking time bomb,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The disaster zones are massive. Our officials can seize explosives and confiscate gold, but they don\u2019t have skills to stop illegal mining.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/285796\/ramaphosa-signs-off-on-stronger-rights-for-land-occupiers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ramaphosa signs off on stronger rights for land occupiers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illegals mining has put several key Johannesburg landmarks at risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":239721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-286804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286804"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286832,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286804\/revisions\/286832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}