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LIVING WITH DANGER: A Sowetan Special Report

BEWARE: Children walk barefoot on a mine dump at Tudor Shaft informal settlement. An expert said radiation in the area was 15 times more than normal and advised people living in the settlement to move to a safer place.
BEWARE: Children walk barefoot on a mine dump at Tudor Shaft informal settlement. An expert said radiation in the area was 15 times more than normal and advised people living in the settlement to move to a safer place.

ALL around us there are people living in dangerous places because they are desperate, poor and waiting for housing.

These people do not believe that their homes are built on dangerous land because no one in their area, to the best of their knowledge, has died of such hazards yet.

Today, we focus on Tudor Shaft informal settlement, outside Kagiso, on the West Rand.

This is home to about 5,000 people whose shacks are built on radioactive ground with radiation 15 times higher than normal.

The families are sitting on a ticking time bomb.

This is the first in a series of articles Sowetan will run weekly about people living on the edge, risking life and limb.

* To read the stories from the Tudor Shaft informal settlement, click on the headlines displayed as 'related articles'

Sample of what we were told:

"I  know that my shack might sink because there are holes underneath. We have been told we are not supposed to live here but where will we go?"

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness."

"I miss my mother's RDP house back home."

"I saw children playing in soil yellowed by radioactive uranium and other toxic metals.. This can lead to birth defects and brain disorders."

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