Johannesburg — MINERALS and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica's decision to halt the mining of titanium in Xolobeni, Eastern Cape was not a suspension of the licence, but merely a delay in its execution, Jacinto Rocha, deputy director-general in the department, said yesterday.

"The mining licence stands," Rocha said.

The execution of the licence, granted to Transworld Energy and Minerals, was supposed to begin at the end of next month . But following an internal appeal by community organisation, the AmaDiba Crisis Committee, Sonjica delayed the commencement of mining so that she could receive representations from the committee and consult King Mpondombini Sigcau and Queen MaSobhuza Sigcau.

Rocha said the reason for the delay was pragmatic: to deal with the appeal.

The committee had said in its appeal that Transworld had not consulted with those sections of the Xolobeni community most affected by the decision. It also said that the traditional leaders that were consulted were not the correct ones -- as registered in the Traditional Leaders Act.

The intended mining project has, since its inception, divided the Xolobeni community, based in the Transkei region. Some support it in the hope that it will bring jobs to the poverty- stricken area. Others, represented by the committee, say the proposed mine would destroy the community's traditional way of life and ancestral graves.

Sarah Sephton of the Legal Resources Centre, which represents the committee, said: "We called on the department to suspend the operation of the mining right. In response they have given us an undertaking that they would not authorise the mining until the appeal has been decided. We intend to hold them to that undertaking."