The community, many illegal immigrants, have been living next to the busy Stoffberg Road for years. As time goes by, their numbers have grown.

They choose to live next to the road because they make a living selling wood and coal to passers by.

Attempts to move the community away from danger has been futile. Wooden houses, built a safe distance from the road, only served to expand the community rather than get them out of harm’s way. The houses have been occupied but the shacks erected next to the road have not been vacated.

A source involved at the nearby Malahleni mine, says that the community is becoming a huge problem and that authorities are not very keen to do something about it.

The Stoffberg Road is known for its high volume of trucks, transporting minerals and coal from Limpopo to Middelburg and Gauteng.

“It is only a matter of time before a truck loses control and crash into the houses next to the road. There are families living there. Women and small babies sit next to the road daily,” the man said.

Attempts to get the Department of Home Affairs as well as the Traffic Department involved have not been successful.

Members of the community are suspected to be involved in illegal mining activities on a deserted part of the Malahleni mine land.

Dangerous trenches and man made caves are dug to get to the remaining coal which is then resold. Heaps of coal can be seen everywhere and reports of trucks entering the yard at night to load the black gold, lead to suspicions that illegal miners have expanded their business to bigger buyers than their roadside clients.

Fears that miners will pay with their lives when the unstable trenches they dig, collapse, does nothing to deter them from digging for coal.

A security company tasked to protect Malahleni Mine assets, has reported a sharp increase in theft on the mining site. Cables are a favourite and guards have been stabbed with knifes and chased around with homemade weapons in their attempt to stem the flow of criminal activities.