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Mapela agreement is reminiscent of worst forms of colonialism

Mapela agreement is reminiscent of worst forms of colonialism

BY CHRISTOPHER RUTLEDGE  MAY 04 2016, 05:49

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A worker walks past a board outside Anglo American offices in Johannesburg. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO
A worker walks past a board outside Anglo American offices in Johannesburg. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO

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IN A swift response to my article on BDlive in which I point to the shady manner in which Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) had reached an agreement with Kgoshi Kgabagare David Langa, the Kgoshi was at pains to point out that the consultations were held, in accordance with the customs and the traditions of the community.
It would be useful then for the Kgoshi to advise the readers of the BDlive and the country as a whole, why it is that the very community he claims to have consulted, is currently preparing a legal challenge to the deal.
Mapela community activists in a statement released on April 20 2016 and which for some obscure reason the media were not interested in reporting on, point out that the community was not consulted and when they finally became aware of the deal they wrote to the Kgoshi and the tribal council opposing the signing of the deal. The Kgoshi was quick to reply that his engagements with the community was merely a courtesy and that as such he had no legal obligation to consult broader than with his self-appointed tribal council.
This arrogant dismissal of the community’s concerns and wishes is not in keeping with the law governing tribal councils and is indicative of the impunity with which democratic processes are ignored in order to pursue elitists’ accumulation of wealth.
In a letter drafted by the legal counsel for the Mapela Executive, they state that: "The Mapela Traditional Council does not have the requisite statutory authority to enter into the settlement agreement on behalf of the Mapela Traditional Community as it is not constituted in compliance with the provisions of sections 4(4) and 4(5) of the Limpopo Traditional Leadership Governance and Framework Act, 2005 (act number 6 of 2005) in that less than 40% of the members of the traditional council have been elected, and less than a third of its members are women. Given the above, the agreement is void, alternatively, voidable."
More importantly, the community activists make it clear that there was no adequate consultation with the community. "For the chief to sign such (an) agreement without proper consultation would perpetuate, rather than solve, the current crises in our area, it will be in breach of customary law and the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act of 1996 (IPILRA).... The chief did not provide us with a final version of the settlement.... We confirm that the community rejects Anglo’s claim of a settlement deal."
As an attorney, the Kgoshi should know this by now and his blatant abuse of his office and the legal mechanisms put in place to safeguard community interests deserves sanction and should not be allowed to be paraded as legality, while the members of his community are increasingly dispossessed of their land and livelihoods.
The attempt by Anglo American Platinum to surreptitiously sow division in the community by holding up a carrot of cash and promises of access to projects is not dissimilar to what has happened in countless mining communities across the country. Most recently we have seen how the lure of access to wealth for chiefs and their cohorts have been used to deadly effect in Xolobeni.
The community of Mokopane has been plagued by strife and divisions ever since Anglo imposed its presence there, and there is every expectation that following this deal, activists and those opposing the deal will be faced with intimidation and violence.
This latest agreement attempts to bind the community to a full and final settlement. To impose such an onerous agreement on a divided community and one that has not been fully and comprehensively consulted on what such an agreement implies for the injustices of the past as well as for the present and the future, smacks of a swindle and dispossession reminiscent of the worst forms of colonialism SA was subjected to in the past. The irony being that this pact — between a colonial corporation and the chief using an unelected tribal council to add a veneer of legitimacy — is being undertaken in broad daylight within a democratic state.
To add insult to injury, Anglo American Platinum has not conducted itself as an honest broker in the dispute with the community. In September 2015, after the community led a 10-day shutdown of Anglo’s Mogalkwena mine, Anglo signed an agreement with the community of Mapela that was brokered by the mineral resources minister at the time, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). In the agreement it was stated that, "All grievances raised by affected communities must be attended to by Amplats working with the task team."
However, this task team was soon diverted from the goal of finding lasting solutions to the decades of dispossession and injustice and were taken on jaunts across the country and offered stipends and access to projects. Soon the task team was discarded and its legitimacy in the community eroded. I have elsewhere written about my concern about the role played by the South African Human Rights Commission in allowing this avoidance by Anglo to be legitimised by their participation.
Having neutralised the task team and having succeeded in dividing the community, Anglo swooped in with another attempt to avoid its responsibility to the community by doing a deal with the Kgoshi and the tribal council.
If Anglo or the Kgoshi think that elite deals present a solution to the historical and continued legacy of Anglo’s dispossession of the tribal community of Mapela, then any hope of finding a lasting solution has been kicked in the teeth and dispossessed of its potential and the hope of the community will once again be sacrificed at the trough of elite interests.
Evidence from our research in the area points not to a steady march towards a lasting solution, but instead it brings into stark relief the systemic nature of the impoverishment, growing food insecurity, unemployment and homelessness resulting from Anglo’s continued presence in the community.
Any solution to this, and other mining conflicts across the country, cannot involve simply further enrichment of the tribal authorities, but instead calls for deeper democratic engagement with the people directly affected.

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