“ M
ining companies continue to violate us by displacing our people and polluting our land , yet officials in this department do nothing about it ,” shouted Monica Ngcobo as she stood at the gates of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy ( DMRE ) in Pretoria .
Ngcobo joined hundreds of people from Mining Affected Communities United in Action ( MACUA ) who marched to the department on 8 February .
NEWS
Hundreds of people from mining communities march in Pretoria
Masego Mafata
Reprinted From : Groundup . org . za
The march follows MACUA ’ s inaugural summit , also held in Pretoria on Wednesday , where people discussed the challenges they face in communities affected by mining activity .
Marchers criticised the DMRE for being idle while people living in mining-affected communities are exploited and forcibly removed .
Ngcobo , who comes from Kagung village in the Northern Cape , said she was marching on behalf of traditional healers .
Ngcobo , a traditional healer , said her family was forcibly removed from the land where her great-grandparents are buried to make way for a mine near the village .
“ If we want to go to our great-grandparents ’ grave , we have to ask for permission from the mine to access the grave . At times , they don ’ t even permit us ,” she said .
“ Traditional health practitioners face challenges because mining companies continue to demolish our ancestral land where we get the herbs that we use to heal people . They also demolish the graves of our forefathers and this interferes not only with our customs but also with our work ,” she said .
Marchers from the old mining town of Merafong said they were battling with sinkholes as a result of mining activity in the area and the government has done little to assist them .
Figure 1 . Monica Ngcobo is a traditional healer from Kagung , a mining village in the Northern Cape . She joined a march by communities affected by mining activities to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy . Photo : Masego Mafata
“ It feels as though they are waiting for someone to die before doing something . The premier of Gauteng came in 2021 , and other officials have also come after that , singing the same song of addressing the matter but nothing has changed ,” she said .
Rabanye said she is a third-generation resident of Khutsong . Her family was displaced from Deelkraal in Carltonville when a mine in the area wanted to build a shaft on their land . Rabanye said they also have ancestral graves in Deelkraal , which they have battled to access because of the presence of the mine .
“ We can ’ t be doing the work of DMRE , as community members , of going and monitoring the mines . They are the structure that must make sure that mines take responsibility for the impact of their activities . But they are not . Instead , they tell us they are under-resourced ,” she said .
Addressing the crowd of marchers and representatives of the DMRE , MACUA ’ s national coordinator Meshack Mbangula delivered what he called the “ the true state of our nation ” where communities “ continue to be exploited by mines ”, receiving no assistance from the DMRE .
However , Mbangula read out a list of demands on behalf of MACUA . These included the inclusion of mining-affected communities in decision-making processes , legislation that makes it binding for mining companies to seek free , informed and prior consent from communities , and an overhaul of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act ( MPRDA ).
Siyabonga Vezi the regional manager of DMRE said while it was difficult to respond to MACUA because no memorandum had been handed to them , he will “ pass MAC- UA ’ s message to the general director ”.
Vezi said the DMRE engaged “ consistently ” with mining-affected communities , with the most recent engagement being a summit in September last year to “ review the MPRDA ”.
According to Gudani Tshikota , MACUA MPRDA / Democracy project leader , their request to DMRE for meaningful inclusion in the summit last year was denied .
“ We asked to co-facilitate sessions with them at this summit because we understand the issues faced by communities affected by mining activities , but they did not grant our request ,” he said .
Patricia Rabanye from Khutsong , a township in Merafong , said she was frustrated by the inaction by government on the growing sinkholes in Khutsong .
MACUA did not hand over a memorandum to the DMRE because the exercise has proved futile in the past , the organisation said .
Tshikota said MACUA wanted engagement with DMRE and mining-affected communities to be meaningful and not just a “ box-ticking exercise ”.
Grassroots Vol 24 No 1 March 2024 18