See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11535.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11516.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11518.

That’s the question facing voters in Southwest Alaska’s Lake & Peninsula Borough who last week passed a ballot resolution banning all large-scale resource extraction, including mining, “that would destroy or degrade salmon habitat”.

No-one is in doubt that the measure is aimed at one of the world’s most important prospective mines in the vicinity of Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Few people expect the community to triumph over the likes of Anglo American, commercial interests, and some Alaskan native corporations.

However, on November 7, Alaska’s Superior Court will begin proceedings to consider the constitutionality of the Lake & Peninsula Borough ordinance. It promises to be an interesting hearing.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/11260.

See also: South Africa mine a poor comparison for Pebble, http://www.adn.com/2011/10/02/2100315/south-africa-mine-a-poor-comparison.html.

But Ms Shabangu has an uphill task: less than 9% of mines actually met this target in 2009. She says: “One problem has been companies that got into the sector with little or no experience, that were not viable or that were seen as fronts for white capital. Mine safety is another major issue…the pursuit of profits [is] behind a mounting death toll in the industry”.

Among the major London-listed companies active in South Africa are Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11131&l=1.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page35?oid=133851&sn=Detail.

See http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/1005008.

So declares Esther Moloto who, with fellow villagers, is waging war against the world’s biggest platinum mining company, a subsidiary of London-listed Anglo American.

Her impassioned comment follows shortly after the Bengwenyama-ye-Maswazi community, successfully sued another miner in the country’s platinum belt for encroaching on its territory.

However, according to this article, it’s not just poor black South Africans who are feeling a “squeeze”. The mining industry itself – the platinum sector included – is stagnating. Each year between 2000 and 2008, it actually contracted by 1 percent in dollar terms.

See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10703.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page35?oid=116372&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

But at the last minute the company forced a postponement and the case will now not be heard until 2 March 2011, allowing Anglo Platinum to continue dumping its waste into the tailings dam on the land that the Sekuruwe community never gave proper consent for them to use.

The Sekuruwe community and other villages around Angloplat’s PPL mine are disappointed and angry at these delay tactics, and say they will not be taking this lying down.
 
According to Jubilee South Africa, the background to the matter is as follows:

Following an unsuccessful application in January 2009, by the community to interdict the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform (“the Minister”) from leasing a large portion of the farm Blinkwater to Potgietersrust Platinums Limited (PPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Anglo Platinum Ltd, the community filed a review application in the North Gauteng High Court to set aside the lease.  That matter will be heard in early 2011.

Since the grant of the disputed lease, PPL has undertaken the construction of a tailings dam on Blinkwater where it intends to dump hundreds of millions of tons of mine waste over the next 70 years. In about October this year PPL began with the dumping of waste.

Blinkwater is occupied by the members of the Sekuruwe community. Sekuruwe is a village near Mokopane in the Limpopo province. Many community members depend for their subsistence on farming activities on Blinkwater.  The establishment of the tailings dam on Blinkwater will rob the community of more than half of their land including all the arable land on Blinkwater. The land will be permanently sterilized for any purposes. This will cause hardship and hunger and will totally disrupt the community’s traditional way of life. 

The Minister awarded PPL the lease against the wishes of the community and without ever consulting with it. She relied on a “community land rights resolution” taken at a meeting convened by the mine and its proxy, the Sekuruwe section 21 company, where a small and unrepresentative minority ostensible agreed to lease the land to the mine. The proposed lease agreement itself was not made available to the community for consideration.

The lease provides for an annual rental of R194 169,16 per annum was based upon an agricultural valuation and was not the product of an arms length negotiation between the parties.

The establishment of the tailings dam is part of a R4.5 billion expansion project that will produce 450 000 ounces of platinum per annum worth some R5.3 billion. It is the largest open cast platinum mine in the world. The mine will produce some 70 million tons of waste rock and tailings per annum.  The communities upon whose land the mine will occur, have no financial interest in the mine despite the fact that almost 15 000 villagers have been relocated to make way for mining operations and thousands more, including the members of the Sekuruwe community have been displaced from their farm lands. 

Since the lease was granted, PPL has fenced off the land, constructed the larger part of the tailings dam, exhumed community members’ graves, and paid some compensation to some farmers on a take it or leave it basis. The members of the Sekuruwe community have since been denied access to the fenced in land.

The tailings dam which is built in close proximity to the Sekuruwe village has a footprint of approximately 280 ha, a capacity of one million tons of tailings per month, and will amount to a height of 60 meters. By now 1.8 million tons of tailings have been pumped into the dam. 

Community members are concerned about the loss of farming land, potential health hazards associated with the tailings dam and the pollution of ground water resources.

The mine maintains that it has been authorised to construct the dam and to dump mine waste on Blinkwater by virtue of an Amendment to its Environmental Management Plan (“EMP”) which was approved by the Department of Mineral Resources in 2003.

The applicants maintain that the dam and the dumping of tailings on Blinkwater is illegal in that:
· No Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out and no environmental authorisation was granted in terms of the national Environmental management Act (“NEMA”) and
· That Blinkwater does not fall within the area in respect of which PPL has mining rights and as such the Minister of Mineral Resources has no jurisdiction to authorise mining activities that include the construction of tailings dams and the dumping of mine waste upon it.

In the application (case No. 56012/10) the applicants seek an order interdicting the dumping of waste on Blinkwater pending the grant of environmental authorisation ito NEMA alternatively the determination of the application for the review and setting aside of the lease.

The Sekuruwe community and their neighbors have been in the news of late.  In the face of a wide-spread public outrage, Anglo Platinum was compelled to apologize to the community for removing their graves without due regard to traditional custom or procedure and without the permission of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). 

The relocations of some 10 000 residents of the neighbouring villages of Ga-Puka and Ga-Sekhaolel was criticized by the South African Human Rights Commission. Subsequent investigations and reports by international NGO, Action Aid, and ERM, the consultants appointed by Anglo Platinum, to review the relocations, confirmed that the relocations were not carried out in conformity with internationally accepted norms and standards.

The unrepresentative section 21 companies established by Anglo Platinum to represent the Sekuruwe and other communities have also come under fire.  The Minister for Mineral Resources pledged that these structures would be replaced.  The legal advisor to these companies, Advocate Seth Nthai SC, has since also been disbarred.

The outcome of the proceedings has significant implications for the Sekuruwe community and the mine. If the application is successful the mine will be obliged to undertake a fresh round of consultation with the Sekuruwe community and other interested parties to address their interests and concerns around the construction of the tailings dam on their land. On its part the PPL mine will be prevented from continuing to dump tailings on the land, which according to the mine will occasion it substantial economic loss.
South African Human Rights Commission, Mining-related observations and recommendations: Anglo Platinum, affected communities and other stakeholders, in and around the PPL Mine, Limpopo, November 2008

Press:
New allegations against tainted advocate surface – The Star, published: 10 February 2010 (http://www.security.co.za/fullStory.asp?NewsId=15174)

Mining giant faces local protest – The Star, published: 27 October 2010
(http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5703525)

Jubilee South Africa and IANRA South Africa Press Statement, 25 October 2010

Jubilee Mokopane will be marching with the support of IANRA South Africa to the Anglo Platinum PPL mine north west of the town of Mokopane in Limpopo province on Tuesday 26 October 2010 from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm.
The immediate reason for the march is in support of the Sekuruwe community and the court case it is currently pursuing against the mine for the destruction of the community’s land for a tailings dam for the waste from the mine’s operations.

Anglo Platinum fenced off the land the community has always used for ploughing and grazing, instantly preventing the villagers from accessing and using the land and severing their ability to sustain their livelihoods. In the process of destruction, the company has desecrated community graves on the land. It has been forced to apologise and to support the reconstruction of the skeletal remains, but many graves remain unaccounted for with numerous skeletal remains still believed to be on the land being destroyed. The destruction to date has already been extensive and people from the community are reporting that the mine appears to be starting to pour unknown substances onto the land.

The broader reasons for the march include the general destruction of land and the environment and contamination of water affecting numerous villages in the area. According to Phillipos Dolo, Jubilee Mokopane Coordinator, “This is an environmental injustice. We demand that Anglo Platinum stops the degradation and contamination of the environment and water with immediate effect and that it makes reparations for the damage it has caused.”

The march will also make a statement against the lack of progress in the task team established by the Ministry of Mineral Resources after it called for the disestablishment of the much detested Section 21 companies established by Anglo Platinum in communities affected by its operations. Instead of honouring its commitment to the task team, the company is continuing to make deals with the current illegitimate leadership of the Mapela Tribal Authority and the Section 21 companies. It is also continuing to make selective offers of employment to manipulate community leaders while failing to provide any significant jobs for the affected communities.

The march is being supported by the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa – South Africa (Ianra South Africa), a network including communities affected by mining as well as NGOs supporting these communities. The network was formally established earlier this year and is organising exchange visits between communities and people affected by mining. Currently, communities affected by Anglo Platinum and other companies engaged in platinum mining in both the Greater Rustenburg area and the eastern limb of the platinum belt in Limpopo are in Mokopane to lend their support to the march.

These include communities in Greater Rustenburg which have faced long-standing damage by Anglo Platinum to their land, environment and livelihoods and are also facing further expansion of mining activities. They are demanding sustainable development, reparations and benefits from the existing mining operations as well as a halt to expansion without consultation.

The community of Magobading in the eastern limb is also present. They have long-standing grievances in relation to their removal from areas in which Anglo Platinum has established mining operations to the rural township of Magobading created for that purpose, with lack of access to land and water and inadequate services and far from any potential places of employment.

George Dor
Jubilee South Africa General Secretary and IANRA SA working committee

For further information, contact:
Phillipos Dolo, Jubilee Mokopane coordinator, 073 789 2489
Joseph Magobe, Rustenburg, IANRA SA working committee, 083 960 5818

Royal Bafokeng is the largest “black empowered” mining company in South Africa – the Royal Bafokeng Nation itself consisting of some 300,000 people.

Recently Impala Platinum (which has a secondary listing of the London Stock Exchange) bid for control of Royal Bafokeng.

Possible “nationalisation” of all south African mines has been at the forefront of  debate in the country during the past weeks –as has continued criticism of Black Economic Empowerment as never having done what it was promised to do, with more and more power and money being scooped up by black entrepreneurs.

CHANENG KGOTLA SUSPENDS MEETING BAFOKENG EXCO

On Friday, 01 October 2010, Chaneng Community Leadership committee were all “dressed up and looking good” when they suddenly changed their mind and suspended meeting Bafokeng executives due to reasons not disclosed to Chaneng ViBe.

Chaneng Executive Kgotla was to meet all key Royal Bafokeng Nation Executives for the 1st time in 2 years in its history. This meeting was to come after Chaneng Community Lekgotla, youth committee and Styldrift Project task team had hosted directors from Minister Shabangu and Minister Sonjica’s departments last week Wednesday to resolve a platinum mining-operation quarrel caused by ‘a deliberate and sustained disregard to the community concerns’.

The Chaneng community has for a period more than 2yrs relentlessly persisted in resisting an intruding Styldrift Project, despite delaying tactics by mine management. Until the take-over by Royal Bafokeng Platinum in January 2010, BRPM project has reached its lowest community confidence especially from Chaneng.

On 11 February 2010 the youth of Chaneng and nearby communities (Robega, Rasimone & Mafenya) held a demonstration which submitted a memorandum addressed to the Styldrift Project Manager, Mr. Glenn Harris, demanding an immediate “closure of the Styldrift Project within 24hours”. The demand was never hounoured and received the same ‘deaf ear attitude’ as all other preceding community requests and concerns.

A member of the community leadership highlighted that; “this (mining) issue is even causing a quarrel amongst us (community)”.

According to one member of the community’s Styldrift Project task team, it is not only a community splitting-up which is a recent threat; “we are driven by the mine management like a merry-go-round, and i don’t want to be in a merry-go-round. Our concerns are genuine and ought to have been considered prior to the project’s roll out, so whom did they consult? ”he asked.

A document titled Styldrift Project Community Consultation Report highlights the merry-go-round-story better.
“Time delaying tactics and intentional creation of conflict between the villages around the mines, has been the only response received, coupled with continued bug passing between the project team and the Royal Bafokeng Nation leadership which in turn has declined to meet or engage the Chaneng community kgotla/khuduthamaga(executive committee) despite numerous written correspondence.

“The community is thus left with no other option but to employ more aggressive strategies to enforce compliance”, the report concluded.

The ministerial intervention comes after a community complaint was laid in September, with the Department of Mineral Resources and the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs.

Residents of the Chaneng community stand firm in their resolve to involve a third party for purposes of mediation in this matter. This was reflected in a reply letter written to the new Senior Project Manager, Mr. Tom Sertic, who attempted to reopen discussions and in his words “build a good relationship since he is new”.

In the morning of the 22 September, Chaneng community members were picketing in and around Phokeng village as well as at the currently developed Styldrif Project mine.

This action is reported to “make sure that the mining and Bafokeng administration officials, are equally concerned as we(the Community), are concerned about this unlawful operation in our grazing and residing land”.

“It is clear that the project will harm the environment, deteriorate the quality of life, bring us more poverty and illness without any consideration or humane attempt to empower or benefit the community” added  a community member of Chaneng.

History bears testimony to the ruthless exploitation of communities by mining companies, the Chaneng community is but one of the many helpless black communities whose hope for justice and restoration of dignity lies on the ability of government to adequately and swiftly rise to their protection.

It has been reported to Chaneng ViBe that a community meeting will be held at 4pm this Tuesday, 05 October 2010 at Chaneng Primary School to bring a “new world order”.

**END**

Author: Joseph Magobe
Contacts: joseph@workmail.co.za/
083 960 5818

In 2008, Jubilee Sekiming engaged in sustained protest action and succeeded in driving the unwanted Lonmin prospecting rigs off their land. Later that year, when Anglo Platinum began paying Section 21 companies in villages across the area to paper over the cracks in houses due to its blasting activities, the Sekiming activitists again stood up for their rights.

It was through actions like these that the Minister of Mineral Resources was finally forced to announce her intention to disband the Section 21 companies. Yet, these companies still appear to be benefitting from Anglo Platinum favours today.

The question is: How can Anglo Platinum form structures in communities in order to SOW DIVISION. How can it BULLDOZE GRAVES in Sekuruwe, DUMP DIRT ON WOMEN PROTECTING THEIR LAND, allow women, children, and men to be beaten and arrested for protecting their land across the platinum belt, and ARREST 80 year old traditional leaders and the 11 year old child of an activist? HOW IS THAT ACCEPTABLE in the new democracy? BUT WHEN Sekiming community members protect their land, and drive off the drilling machines from Lonmin to which they never consented, then stand firm in the face of Anglo Platinum buying off the people in the Section 21, 46 community members are targeted and arrested for several charges, and 16 are convicted of public violence?

CLEARLY ANGLO PLATINUM BENEFITTED FROM APARTHEID and BENEFITS EVEN MORE NOW!

Jubilee Mokopane and community members from around the Mapela and Mokopane areas will be in the Mahwelereng Magistrate’s Court on 1 September 2010 to protest this repression perpetrated by Anglo Platinum and the Police. Despite reports from Action Aid, the SA Human Rights Commission, Benchmarks Foundation, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and even the Limpopo Premier’s Office exposing Anglo Platinum’s wrongdoing, the communities continue to face repression with no hope in sight from the government they elected and who is supposed to protect them.
 
For more information, please contact: Phillipos Dolo, (Jubilee Mokopane Coordinator) at 073 789 2489, Mr. Sekgala (Jubilee Sekiming) 071 245 4788, or George Dor (Jubilee South Africa General Secretary) at 011 648 7000 or 076 460 9620, george@mail.ngo.za.

Has Anglo American, the transnational miner, run short of ideas over its continuing remodeling, a process that has been underway for more than a decade? Its latest move may be a sideways one, in the appointment of Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll as chairman of 80% subsidiary Anglo Platinum, and the promotion to deputy chairman of Anglo Platinum one Valli Moosa, a somewhat controversial South African politician.

See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page67?oid=107532&sn=Detail&pid=92730.

Anglo Platinum employee accused of disrupting community meeting

The Bench Marks Foundation has expressed its concern suggesting that an employee of Anglo Platinum was instrumental in preventing a meeting of the relocated Magobading community from taking place last weekend.

The community meeting was to have happened on Saturday 22 May, in order to implement an agreement that Anglo Platinum entered into with the relocated Magobading community on the 18th February 2010.  However, the meeting was prevented from happening by a group of angry young people from surrounding villages. It is alleged that the young people were organised by an employee of Anglo Platinum, Mr Trinity Mthiyana.

Bench Marks Foundation Executive Director, John Capel, says: “During the course of the past two months, Anglo Platinum has signed an historic agreement in France emanating from the meeting of the 18th February, committing itself to talking to the community and meeting its demands. We are very concerned at reports of intimidation of the community, some of whom were threatened with injury and even death. This kind of intimidation undermines the legitimate work of the community. We therefore call on Anglo Platinum to make every effort to ensure that none of its employees are involved in any way in such disruptive and intimidatory behaviour.”

The Foundation notes that Magobading is a relocated community, and that Anglo Platinum has promised to compensate it in various ways.  This includes promises to renovate halls and homes of community members.

The community has also called for an independent fund to be set up to provide resources to capacitate the community in various ways, including job creation.

Capel added that the Foundation will be talking to its national and international allies to assess the way forward. A meeting with COSATU, SACC the NGO Coalition of Limpopo will be held soon to mobilize support for the community. In addition, a complaint has been opened up with the South African Police Forces in Limpopo against those responsible for the threats against the community.

However, he added that many in the community are worried about a backlash against them and are living in fear of their lives. There are also allegations that a hit list has been drawn up by community leaders preferred by Anglo Platinum.

“The SA Human Rights Commission has already ruled against the way Anglo Platinum engages with communities, but Anglo Platinum insists on a policy of ‘divide-and-rule’ that further exacerbates tensions that can lead to people being killed,” Capel warned.

For more information, contact John Capel
+27 (0)11 832 1743
+27 (0)82 874 2650