part of no part

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...

There can be little doubt that the question of land and its just and equitable distribution, was , is and will remain a central area of struggle among any people who live in poverty and who are denied their right to participate in their own governance. The African experience of Colonialism and its characteristic trait of land dispossession has significantly sharpened our legal and intellectual awareness of the centrality of land in the well-being of any people. The legacy of which still remains, a festering wound on the psychosocial fabric of Africans in general but which is felt especially poignantly in Southern Africa. The Southern African experience, both in South Africa and Zimbabwe, has been characterised by the manner in which the legitimate struggles of the landless masses, culminated in the surrender of their moral and consequently, their legal right to Justice. At the centre of this surrender was the willingness of the Political elites in both Countries to accept that...

On Monday 19 February 2018, a seminal case is being heard in the Pretoria North High Court that once again sees the poor and marginalised coming up against the rich and powerful in the Mining Charter Case. This battle between the rich and the hungry, while unique in its own ways, and couched as it is in legalistic and broad liberal principles, is nonetheless, at its core, the continuation of the centuries old struggle of indigenous communities for Justice. While, one could easily be fooled by the media`s single minded focus on the Chamber of Mines and the interest of Big Business in the Mining Charter Case, a closer look, will reveal that a Full Bench of the Pretoria North High Court, has sanctioned the inclusion of cases brought by mining affected communities under the leadership of MACUA, who claim that their exclusion from policy and legislative processes serves only to deny them their Constitutional Rights to participate in matters that affect them and to further deepen an...