part of no part

In response to the recent court judgement in the Pretoria High Court, Minister Mantashe lamented the ruling, claiming that “ the community of Xolobeni needs mining in order to bring about much-needed development in the area ” and that “ mining is being treated like a curse rather than a blessing. It is not treated as a wealth, it is treated as more of a negative. It is a polluter, it is a depravation and all that. That worries me a great deal because the mining we have, we are endowed with it naturally. We should just be forced to mine responsibly .” Minister Mantashe`s comments capture in a few short sentences the essence of why conflict between mining companies and communities have become so pervasive and why communities have been forced to resort to the courts in the face of a deep chasm of understanding between government and the people, whose interest’s government is supposed to represent. The assertion by the Minister that mining will bring development and oth...

Fatima Vally and Christopher Rutledge 22 November 2018. “When I first reported my case (of sexual harassment), I was told that he was too politically important to fire”. “There seems to be an institutionalised elite in this sector (civil society) that cannot be held accountable.” ‘’The media, funders, organisations and society in general have a particular idea of what a victim looks like. Karabo Mokoena’s murder made national headlines while most South African’s have no idea that Lerato Moloi, a black lesbian woman from the townships, was gruesomely murdered just a few days after Karabo.” These were just some of the harrowing comments and experiences shared at a public discussion hosted by ActionAid South Africa this week. The discussion was aimed at examining and confronting the hidden culture of violence, discrimination, harassment, and oppression that pervades civil society spaces and keeps women who organise and work in these spaces, in constant fear. In a ...

Both Thabo Mbeki and Pallo Jordan miss the proverbial elephant in the room when Mbeki leaks a 30 page pamphlet on the Land and National Question and when Pallo defends the ANC in return. Mbeki seeks to make the conversation about the participation or rather exclusion of Whites in the National Question and links the land question firmly to the National question and argues that the ANC has deviated from its historical position, While Pallo relies on the Morogoro conference of 1969 to argue that the ANC has not deviated from its historical path. Both speak of the central analysis of ANC which argues for prosecution of the struggle in favour of Blacks in General and Africans in particular. Mbeki uses it to argue that it excludes whites from the Land question which undoes the National question, while Pallo argues that it is consistent since at least Morogoro. What they both miss, is that the very analysis of the Morogoro Conference which places a Berlin Wall between what it c...

The decision by Minister Gwede Mantashe and the Cabinet to withdraw the MPRDA Amendment Bill from the Parliamentary process and to simultaneously water down the provisions of the Mining Charter, appears once again to signal a decisive move by the current government to favour business and profits at the expense of some of the most marginalised and impoverished South Africans. This announcement comes ironically at a time when South Africans have been following the Zondo commission into the corporate capture of the state. While the commission appears to be considering a particularly rabid type of corporate capture of the state, the announcement by Cabinet on Thursday, brings to the fore an ideological capture of the state by corporate interests. In its essence, the cabinet decision to set aside the current MPRDA Amendment process, is not so much a victory for policy certainty as it is a smashing down of the popular will and rational thought. Over the course of the last 6 year...

“Awakening on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.” Fast forward to 2018 in a post-Apartheid South Africa, where the land question remains seemingly a critical issue for the rulers of the territory.  Only this time the aim is to reverse the injustice that launched millions of broken souls into the South African social psyche. With an election approaching and the ruling party under serious challenge by a population growing increasingly impatient on the delivery of the promised “better future for all”, the governing party ramped up its political rhetoric on the land question and launched a broad and sweeping public engagement process.  The process often appears as a kind of Land TRC, where long suffering victims are afforded a platform to let off steam but where justice will remain a promise for the distant future. The distant future is unfortunately not a luxury t...

If the first weeks of Gwede Manthashe`s appointment as the Minister of Mineral Resources was characterised by the continuation of the arrogance which has become synonymous with the Minerals Portfolio when he ignored a court order to consult with MACUA and other organised community networks, then the first months of the Minister`s tenure has been marked by the return to the 1996 “ Class Project” which not only deepened and extended the gross inequalities of South African Society, but which also led to the rise of an even more dubious Class Capture Project headed by Jacob Zuma. If the 1996 Class Project was a portend of the deep divisions that such narrow accumulation strategies embody, then South Africa should be seriously concerned by the blatant way the Minister has attempted to construct a false narrative which suggests that “bridges are being built to mend the trust deficit and ensure that extraction benefits everyone via transformation and growth”. Instead of building...

Gwede Mantshe`s entrance into the mining portfolio has almost predictably been no different to the arrogance and superior authoritarianism which has characterised the tenure of the last 4 Ministers in this portfolio. The consistency of the arrogance of government ministers has been a hallmark of the ANC government and has suggested that this type of arrogance and dismissal of groups that do not bow before the majesty of the ANC and its ministers, has become a sort of Governmentality of the ANC. Governmentality is a Foucauldian concept which refers to the organized practices (mentalities, rationalities, and techniques) through which subjects are governed. The manner, in which the Minister has dismissed the Court order which compels him and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to consult mining communities in the “formulation” of the Charter, epitomises the very disdain and contempt with which ministers, such as Gwede Mantashe, has viewed the claims by mining affected communi...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                        Mining Affected Communities Reject Minister Mantashe`s Elitism and exclusion of Mining Affected Communities in defiance of the Pretoria North High Court`s Order. We have once again taken note of reports in the press of a secret meeting held over the weekend over the 17 th and 18 th March in some lavish venue in Muldersdrift between the Minister of Minerals, The Department of Mineral Resources, The National Union of Mine Workers and the Chamber of Mines. We note that this meeting took place despite an order by the Pretoria North High Court which specifically noted that mining communities, and specifically the applicants to the Case i...