Date for Xolobeni ruling due today

Supporters rally from across SA as cause resonates

COMMUNITIES affected by mining across South Africa have rallied behind a legal battle to grant residents the power to refuse companies mining rights.

Yesterday lawyers in the case between the community of Xolobeni village in Mbizana and Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe concluded their arguments before the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

The date for final judgement on the case is expected to be announced today.

Yesterday hundreds of supporters from various provinces including Mpumalanga, Free State, Limpopo and the North West travelled to Pretoria to lend their support to the people of Xolobeni.

The community is asking the court to grant them the power to refuse Mineral Resources authorities the right to extract titanium from their ancestral land on the Wild Coast.

Joining the crowd yesterday outside court was Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union president Joseph Matunjwa.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Matunjwa said the fact that the government would even consider granting foreigners the right to extract minerals meant they did not value what they owned as a nation.

“The land is ours. We must not allow ourselves to be modern-day slaves. The myth that this country cannot move forward without direct foreign investment must be denounced as false,” he said.

“The South African government and its people have a chance to be the sole owners of a titanium mineral but they would rather give that opportunity to Australians.

“Mines must belong to the nation. We cannot continue to be treated like rats by Europeans and live in holes in our own land,” said Matunjwa.

The Amadiba Crisis Committee’s Siyabonga Ndovela said they were not willing to back down on the fight to protect the right of ownership of their mother land.

Tshepo Maredi from Theunissen in the Free State said his community understood the plight of the people of Xolobeni. “Mining companies impose themselves on communities. We don’t have a say. We support the community’s right to say no,” Maredi said.

He said there were three mines operating in the area where he stayed and people were not benefiting from them. Moatlhodi Molefe from the West Rand Independent Association in Gauteng said most mining communities shared similar concerns.

“We understand the people of Xolobeni are fighting a just cause. Mining companies destroy ecosystems and extract minerals without benefiting communities,” he said.

Barbara Modiselle from Bapong, Brits, in the North West said they did not want the Xolobeni community to suffer like them. “We are here to support them because we know what it is like to live in a mining area. Our houses are cracking and the land has been ruined,” Modiselle said.

The state has argued that the mere granting of mining rights will not infringe on the community’s rights.

They also argued that the state had the power to make decisions on minerals and this was not subject to the consent of the landowner.

However, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi has argued that the constitution and customary law afforded communities the right to have a say on their land. He said even though the state had the right to make decisions on minerals, it should not have the right to allow mining to take place without the consent of affected people.

“This case is about the right of consent over the land,” he said.