Franny Rabkin
8 September 2008
Johannesburg — ALLOWING mining to go ahead on the Transkei Wild Coast would devastate the environment and that would mean "permanent change" to the community's "traditional way of life and their connection with the land", said a Xolobeni community organisation, the AmaDiba Action Committee (AAC).
The AAC, assisted by public interest attorneys the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), has appealed against the government's decision to grant a mining licence to Transworld Energy & Minerals Resources (SA) to mine in Xolobeni.
The AAC wants Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to suspend the decision, pending the appeal's outcome.
The licence comes into effect at the end of next month .
In its appeal, the AAC said if the government did not agree to suspend the mining operation before October 1, it would approach the high court for relief.
Sarah Sephton, of the LRC, said on Friday this would be to interdict the commencement of mining pending a review by the court of the decision.
In its appeal, the AAC said the mine would result in the forced eviction of people from their ancestral homes, loss of their grazing land and relocation of their ancestral graves.
It would also have a negative effect on their daily lives and health because of the pollution and increased traffic.
The appeal was based on a number of grounds.
These included that the decision to grant the licence was taken by the director-general of the minerals and energy department, rather than by the minister, who was required by law to take the decision.
The AAC also said that the public consultation process required by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act was "fatally flawed" because the Xolobeni community had not been properly consulted, there had been insufficient notice of public meetings and inaccurate or incomplete information had been given to them.
The AAC said the distance to travel to the meetings was at a minimum a two-hour walk. Most of the Xolobeni community did not have access to cars.
"The people who were consulted were those who lived furthermost away, not the people who lived closest to the area. These people were sidelined in the consultation process," Sephton said.
The proposed mine has divided the community.
Some support it in the hope that it will bring jobs to the impoverished area.
The others, represented by the AAC, feel it will destroy the environment and are pinning their hopes on an ecotourism project for jobs.
Sephton said while it was true that the community was divided on the issue, "the people who are directly affected by the mining are not divided".
Because the land is tribal land, Transworld was also obliged to consult with the traditional leaders in the area. But the LRC said the wrong people were consulted as traditional leaders, rather than the ones registered as such in terms of the Traditional Leaders Act .
Ministerial spokesman Sputnik Ratau said the minister was aware of the dispute over the licence and "so far, based on the report she received from the department, she is satisfied that everything has been done according to the law".
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