Residents of Blyvooruitzicht are not only making a difference in the town but also have big plans for the town’s future.

This former mining town just outside Carletonville has been abandoned after the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine was liquidated in 2013. Although a new company, Blyvoor Gold, took over two of the mine’s old shafts, neither this company nor the government, however, took responsibility for the town.

Since this time, residents have kept Blyvoor functioning and also worked with the NGO Lawyers for Human Rights to force the Merafong City Local Municipality to keep up a basic water supply.

According to Thabo Mashigo, Welcome Jikwana Zamokulunga and Simon Ncube of the Concerned Community Leadership, a group of residents acting as leaders in the town, they took action on some of the community’s main concerns.

“We, as Blyvoor leadership, have decided to take on the challenges of our community in our own hands by trying to fix the roads,” says Mashigo.

During the past week, this group of residents started to repair the town’s many massive potholes after receiving help from a local business. They have to do this themselves as the Merafong City Local Municipality considers the town to be private property and not part of its sphere of governance.

According to Mashigo, they also want to have Blyvoor declared as a town and are prepared to go to the High Court over this issue.

Although the Housing Development Agency (SDA) looked into whether and how this could be done, residents say that the final report on their findings has never been released by the municipality.

The residents ask that anyone who would be prepared to help them further, should contact Mashigo at 076 607 8662 or Jikwana at 083 657 1679.