Taking on Goliaths – and winning

THIS was once again a year in which the law spoke the last word on issues that had a severe impact on people’s lives.

It was also a year where many Davids took on the Goliaths and emerged as victors.

One such case, which has an immense effect on all rural communities bullied by rich mining conglomerates, was the recent victory by the Xolobeni community, who have for decades lived on the rolling green fields and golden sands of the Wild Coast.

The sand is rich in titanium and Australian mining conglomerate Transworld Energy and Minerals was set on mining there. It tried to get a mining right to conduct open-cast mining on about 900 hectares.

The community resisted because it meant losing their ancestral ground. Not only did it take on the mining giant, but also challenged the government which gave the mining company the green light to mine on the land.

In emerging the victors, the community secured an order that, in future, the government had to first consult the affected parties before granting mining rights. Armed with this order, other communities can also ward off mining moguls.

In another case, several rural communities affected by mining scored a huge victory when the court allowed them to enter the legal battle against the 2017 Mining Charter.

They faced the government and mining giants in court when they fought alongside the Chamber of Mines to have the charter set aside. The rural communities of Bakgatla Ba Sefikile, Lesethleng, Babina Phuthi Ba Ga-Makola and Kgatlu, on whose ancestral land mining activities were taking place by mine giants, will be among those who will also have a say in relation to the new Mining Charter.

Then there was Godfrey Mtenje, who took on his landlady. He and his family will be able to live in a built structure on her smallholding in Andeon, west of Pretoria.

For more than a decade, Mtenje, his wife and two daughters lived in three tents the City of Tshwane issued to them in 2006. Over time, the tents became uninhabitable and he started to erect a structure on the property. His landlord wanted him out. But the court said they had the right to remain on the property in terms of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act.

Acting Judge MP Canca, who visited the property, said the act afforded an occupier a number of fundamental human rights, the first of which was human dignity, while it limited a landowner’s rights.

He found that Mtenje had made out a case for the replacement of the demolished building.

Another victory this year was when the Lesethleng Village community took on the Pilanesberg Platinum Mine. They approached the highest court in the country after they found no joy at the North West High Court. The high court had granted an eviction order against the community, in favour of the mine.

In 1916, 13 families in the village decided to buy Wilgespruit farm in the Rustenburg area. Due to apartheid laws, the farm could not be registered in their names. In 1919, it was held in trust for the chief of the Bakgtala ba-Kgafela, the traditional authority which presided over the village.

The mine had obtained the mineral rights on the land and wanted the community out to make way for its operations. Their reasoning was that the community illegally occupied the land.

But the court found that the existence of a mineral right did not extinguish the rights of a landowner or any other occupier of the land.

This was said to be yet another game-changing victory for the right of communities in South Africa to be properly consulted before mining rights were issued.