Mining Impasse Needs Democratic Leadership

In a sudden and unexpected move, and under cover of the noise emanating from the ANC manifesto launch in Nelson Mandela Bay, the Minister of Minerals released a draft Mining Charter which has raised the hackles of mining executives and communities alike.

It appears as if mining companies have been hoping that the legal battle around their spurious claim of “once empowered always empowered” would be sufficient leverage to corral the minister into relaxing the historical and ethical imperative for the mining sector to transform. When the Minister unilaterally presented the draft for public consideration the response from the mining executives was swift, with Neil Froneman leading the charge, calling the new mining charter unacceptable. Business Day Media was unequivocal in its support for the unhindered plunder of South African wealth by foreign mining companies, calling the move by the Minister a “toxic mix of political desperation and ideological intransigence”.

To the Minister`s credit, the unilateral move seems to be an attempt by government to circumvent the legal challenge and to not only clarify the constitutional imperative for the sector to transform but has also in the process provided further clarity on a host of other measures including the manner in which the 26% black ownership stake should be allocated.

However, the Ministers grand effort at leadership, while it deserves credit for its attempt to reaffirm the constitutional imperative to affect substantial transformation, nonetheless continues on the path of disregarding community inputs. This draft, like its predecessors continues to characterise the mining industry as one which only requires the consent of organised business, organised labour and government.

Mining affected communities and civil society have consistently called on the Minister and Parliament to include the concerns and demands of mining affected communities in the development of legislation and in March 2015 the civil society Coalition on the MPRDA gathered in Berea to unequivocally state their demands and to demand that their concerns be incorporated into legislation. 

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) and Women Affected by Mining United in Action (WAMUA) have since gathered demands from over 100 communities which will be consolidated in a Peoples Mining Charter in June this year.

In the preamble to the Berea Declaration, over 60 community representatives and 16 civil society organisations declare that:

“We the mining communities here gathered reiterate our fundamental inalienable human rights and as such are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all our fundamental human freedoms and rights can be fully realized.

We affirm that Democracy is premised on the following:

That affected people must determine their own destinies. For us this means choosing for our-selves both our own developmental paths, and to participate in all decision making and manage or co-manage the utilisation of our resources if we so choose.

In all our struggles against colonialism and Apartheid we have struggled for these, and have insisted that no authority is greater than the will of the people. We have consistently told all the past rulers, that there can be nothing about us, without us.”

Yet successive Ministers have failed to meet with organised community organisations and have consistently failed to provide the legislative space for communities to articulate their aspirations and government continues to place unelected local traditional authorities ahead of the democratic processes demanded by the constitution.

Across the country, from Atock and Burgersfort, to Mokopane, Marikana and Xolobeni, where the short sighted arrogance of government aim to exclude the very people whose lives are impacted by their grandiose schemes, communities continue to resist mining operations, and conflict and violence, like poverty and environmental degradation, continues to be the hallmark of the untransformed mining regime in South Africa.

The Ministers failure to consult with organised mining affected communities and the continued preference to impose unelected traditional authorities as the sole custodians of community interests has been shown in various legal battles, such as the most recent court victory for the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela community of the North West, that this unwillingness to subject the industry to democratic input only leads to conflict and continued poverty.

In Mokopane, around the super profitable Mogalakwena mine operated by AngloPlatinum, the Mapela tribal community are preparing to launch yet another legal challenge to a shady deal signed between the mine and the Mapela Tribal Chief to transfer to the chief an amount of R175 million in full and final settlement of all community claims. No wonder that when the community became aware of this nefarious plan to sell their birth right without proper consultation, there was uproar and the community stands once again on the precipice of a violent confrontation. Already 2 community activists were shot and tensions remain high.

While we celebrate the Ministers attempt to provide leadership and clarity to the industry, we nonetheless remain unconvinced that unilateral impositions of legislative reforms are both within the spirit of the constitution and necessarily a solution to the historical legacy of colonial Apartheid.

If the past 22 years of Post-Apartheid regulation has taught us nothing else, then it is surely that transformation of our colonial past cannot be achieved by big men who make deals in shady corners, but requires the full and democratic participation of the colonised people themselves. The Draft Mining Charter fails spectacularly in this regard.