Open cast mining in South Africa will ruin livelihoods

Azad Essa: The SWC is a collection of organisations and individuals opposing the proposed open cast mining of the Wild Coast. Can you briefly outline the issue at hand?

Val Payn: [The] SWC is a registered Section 21 NGO. However, we collaborate and cooperate with, and lend support too and are supported by, a large number of organisations and individuals who are opposed to the mining, including the communities along the Wild Coast who will be directly affected by the mining.

AE: Is it a local consortium?

VP: Under the Xoobeni Sands Dune Mining proposal, Australian Mining Company, Mineral Resources Commodities LTD (MRC) and its local subsidiary, Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) associate Xolco (26% shareholding) have ambitions to mine some 346 million tons of minerals in a lease area known as the Xolobeni Mineral Sands. Mining over the entire area is estimated to last for 22 years. To date they have been given authority to mine, by DME , the centrally placed Kwanyana block, one of the four blocks demarcated for mining over an approximately 22km stretch of coastal dune in the heart of the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism.

AE: Is it an issue that a foreign mining company together with a BEE partner has the contract, or is it the mining per se?

In SWC opinion both of these are issues. The mining is not part of the original Wild Coast SDI proposal for this region, which had proposed community based tourism as the appropriate driver of development. Also, studies undertaken as part of the Wild Coast Conservation and Sustainable Development Plan showed that, in the long term, the development of community based eco-tourism and sustainable livelihoods projects would bring far greater socio-economic benefits to a broader range of people than the mining. That is, most of the benefits that mining brings are unlikely to be benefits to people who live in the area, and any benefits, such as jobs, will be of short duration for the 22 years lifespan of the mine. On the other hand the social and environmental upheaval that the mining is likely to create for those who occupy the land earmarked for mining is likely to be immense. It is questionable whether any so-called 'benefits' will outweigh these negative impacts. That a foreign mining company will be the greatest beneficiary of this proposal simply compounds the issue.

KEY AREAS OF CONCERN

Fundamental human rights enshrined in the South African Constitution have been violated by the mining company and its supporters.

The public participation process for the conduct of the EIA was grossly biased in failing to ensure those residents most affected by the mining proposal were capacitated to participate meaningfully.

Relevant authorities have not been in full compliance with the relevant statutes: the Mineral and Petroleum Resources' Development Act (MPDRA), the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), and the Interim Protection of Indigenous Land Rights Act (IPILRA).

Major contradictions exist between DEAT and DME interests. For example, the DEAT report has advised that: 'The mining is a short-term economic activity with long-term negative impacts whereas the ecotourism in the area has an unlimited life span,' concluding with a strong recommendation that the mining license should not be awarded, given available information.

The mining venture will destroy the local resource base upon which community based sustainable development is dependent.

The mining venture is in conflict with several of South Africa's agreed international obligations to sustainably conserve and manage our biodiversity and ensure benefit-sharing from such use, including under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Suggested mitigations of environmental impacts are not viable or possible (given the available data and information on which they are based), which will therefore result in the destruction of a unique, internationally recognised centre of endemism, with the risk that this will push a number of threatened (red data) endemic species to extinction due to their restricted ranges within the centre of endemism.

AE: Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica admitted a few days back that the consultation process with the local community was flawed. Has there been any indication to suggest the mining permit will be revoked?

VP: The minister has indicated that she will not execute the mining right on 31 October in light of the appeal, but will hold an appeal hearing in due course.

AE: Is this a battle being fought by concerned citizens, or has the issue been taken up by traditional leadership and/or local government in the region?

VP: Traditional leadership in the region, right up to the level of the king and queen is very concerned about the issue, and has sought legal advice. Local Wild Coast communities have also elected a representative delegation from local community leaders, the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), to voice opposition to the mining agenda. With the support of the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown, the ACC have lodged an appeal against the DME decision. They have also sought the advice of human rights lawyer Richard Spoor, in order to protect community interests.

As far as SWC are aware, local government has been very reserved about the issue, with the exception of Mayoress Capa of O.R. Tambo District, who is a vocal supporter of the mining.

AE: Who are the winners and losers of this deal? If a Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is completed, and a sustainable industry is assured with long-term jobs, will this be acceptable?

VP: Unfortunately [given] the way an SIA is conducted in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources development Act (MPRDA), this seems to leave little room for democratic consultation processes. If one is talking of democratic development processes as being driven by a community having a say in the way that development unfolds, then the processes outlined in the MPRDA leave much to be desired.

Under MPRDA processes, an SIA is simply a way to 'mitigate' any undesirable social effects that might be caused by the mining. It does not raise the 'grassroots' issue of whether the mining is the best development option for affected communities in the first place, but merely imposes a 'solution' on the community after the decision to mine has already been made. The power of the community to thus determine what type of development would be in their best interest is totally undermined. An SIA under MPRDA processes does not allow the option to prevent the mining should the social impacts be deemed unreasonable, but merely seeks to alleviate these. But the means by which they are 'alleviated' are at the discretion of the mining company, which basically sets the rule book.

The EIA indicates that only about 80 jobs for unskilled workers would be created by the mining. The rest, about 200 jobs, would be for skilled and semi-skilled labour. As the population of the region is largely illiterate and unskilled, the benefits of jobs for local populations [are] negligible. On the other hand, many families that are dependent upon subsistence agriculture would be deprived of their means of livelihood for the duration of the mining.

AE: Some critics have labeled this an elite 'white' concern for the environment when there are poor communities desperate for jobs. How did 'race' get tangled into this issue?

VP: The issue of race seems to have been raised by BEE supporters of the mining agenda, such as the Chair of Xolco (the BEE partner), Madiba Qunya, as well as by various politicians who are in favour of the mining proposal, such as Minister Sonjica and Mayoress Capa.

AE: If eco-tourism is the more logical and sustainable industry for the region, why is it proving so hard to convince the necessary authorities?

VP: I am not sure that it is so much a case of convincing the necessary authorities, as of different rules applying to different authorities, and of different authorities having different conflicting agendas. The development of tourism, under DEAT, has to fulfil the requirements of Environmental Impact Assessment's (EIAs) which fall under NEMA, as well as comply with LEDs. These are more strident in their conditions, and thus take more time to comply with in order to ensure that development is indeed 'sustainable' than the DME requirements to get a mining license under MPRDA. The approval for mining is thus easier to come by, as it is not conditional on the project being put to the scrutiny of an EIA. The EIA process under MPRDA is merely a 'benchmark' from which a mining company has to indicate that it will comply to address 'mitigations', it does not necessarily judge the effectiveness of stated 'mitigations' or the broader socio-economic impacts of the proposal. In this case the project also seems to have been rushed through.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) have voiced their disapproval of the mining, but do not seem to have the 'legislative 'teeth' to prevent it under current policies at this stage.

AE: The SWC lobbies for ‘ecologically sensitive economic solutions for the Wild Coast region.’ What are these solutions if economic development is to take place?

VP: Any 'sustainable' solutions for development would have to achieve a balance between economic, social and environmental considerations. The Wild Coast Conservation and Sustainable Development Plan ha[ve] already outlined a process that would allow leeway for development in an 'ecologically sensitive' manner, but this seems to have seen little action.

Whether this is due to government indifference, government 'bungling', or government incapacity is a matter of debate.

AE: Where to from here? If the mining goes ahead in October, how does the SWC plan on tackling it thereon?

VP: SWC are preparing to take the matter to court of lodged appeals fail. However, in this we would be lead by the wishes of those Wild Coast communities who will be most directly affected by the mining.

* Azad Essa is a journalist, lecturer and an aspiring filmmaker.

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/