A Rights-Based Examination of Residents’ Engagement with Acute Environmental Harm across Four Sites on South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin

The South African Constitution guarantees everyone’s right to an environment that is not harmful to his/her health or well-being. Nevertheless, the Witwatersrand basin – once a site of environmental beauty - has been ravaged by 160 years of gold mining, which has resulted in severe environmental damage in the form of toxic water and air and dust pollution that has not, to date, been addressed. In this context, we sought to ascertain the extent to which objectively affected residents are sensitized to environmental issues and whether, to what extent and in what circumstances, any sensitization has developed into mobilized action. This article presents the findings of the qualitative social survey we undertook to examine these questions across four residential sites on the Witwatersrand basin.