We will die for our land, say angry villagers

relocation of homesteads, the effect on estuaries, increased road traffic and the effect on “the sense of place”.

The report concludes by asking: Is tourism a more viable alternative?

The company insists no one will be uprooted; the action committee disagrees. According to committee secretary Mbuthuma, about 200 households face displacement and the farmland on which villagers depend will be devastated.

She added that it is unclear how villagers would be compensated and where they and their livestock would move.

“They will mine around people’s houses. Also, this is a proclaimed marine protected area — mining cannot take place here.”

The anti-mining activists believe that ecotourism and agriculture are viable alternatives and that mining would rule out a tourism trade.

Significantly, of the 25 or more conditions set by the minerals department during last year’s scoping exercise, 18 relate to water use. The requirements include a permit from the water affairs department to draw water from estuaries and a fullblown hydrological study.

Mbuthuma said the national department seemed to have turned a deaf ear to the community’s pleas. She said that, during a visit to Komkhulu in July last year, a senior departmental official said that “mining must occur where there are minerals”.

“We told him we are prepared to go to court to defend our rights. Section 24 of the Constitution gives us the right to a safe environment and sustainable economic development.”

There are other signs that the sands project enjoys official favour. The mineral resources department has approved the company’s scoping report for the latest permit application. And the local municipality, Bizana, is moving to rezone the coastal area from conservation to mining in its development plan.

Traditional politics form a background, including a tug-of-war between the pro-mining chief Baleni and his anti-mining subordinate, headwoman Baleni.

Local leaders said that, twice last year, the chief tried to dismiss her and shut down the coastal traditional authority, demanding that she return the keys of the meeting hall. The villagers are said to have blocked the move.

The action committee’s Mbuthuma claimed the chief was a strong opponent of mining until he was made a director of Xolco, which holds a 26% share in the sands project. She said the mining group expected Baleni to use his position to persuade residents to support the mining.

Baleni, who now lives in Port Edward, initially agreed to an interview on January 20.

On the day, his spokesperson said the chief was no longer allowed to speak to the media and could not meet amaBhungane as they were en route to East London.

The rift reaches further up the traditional hierarchy. Villagers say they do not recognise Zanozuko Sigcau as Pondo king because he was “imposed” by the Eastern Cape government and supports mining. But they have some powerful backers, including Queen MaSobhuza and Crown Princess Wezizwe Sigcau.

The princess told amaBhungane: “This is not just a Xolobeni or Amadiba battle — it is a Pondoland battle. It is Xolobeni today and tomorrow somewhere else, and we are going to put a stop to it.

“We’re mobilising chiefs and village heads to sensitise them before the Xolobeni land problem spreads.”

Many Xolobeni residents insist that, because they have land, they are not poor and do not need mining to develop the area.

The view is summed up in an angry action committee statement in response to South African National Roads Agency claims, in support of Wild Coast highway development, that Xolobeni is one of South Africa’s poorest regions: “When shall this stupidity stop? How can we be poor when we have land? We grow maize, sweet potatoes, taro, potatoes, onions, spinach, carrots, lemons and guavas, and we sell some of it to the market. We eat fish, eggs and chicken. This agriculture is what should be developed here.

“It is not falling apart like in many other places in Eastern Cape. We have cattle for weddings and traditional rituals. We have goats for ceremonies. We are not a part of the ‘one out of four South Africans who go hungry to bed’. We have a life. Poor infrastructure is not poverty.”

Struggle is built into the Pondo DNA. Typifying the defiant outlook of anti-mining villagers was Mthandeni Dlamini (23), who comes from a household of seven and walked 10km to attend the imbizo.

Land and livestock are very important to him and his siblings, as their sole inheritance when their parents died in 2013.

“I am a black man, fourth generation of the Pondo tribe; my umbilical cord is here. For 23 years the only life I know is here in Amadiba,” Dlamini said. “I feel the land belongs to me.

“It should not be assumed because I am new-generation, I want to change my way of life. Traditional healers from the area use the trees to cure our ailments; we have cemeteries at home where we worship our ancestors.

“I enjoy walking on the coast. I need fresh air and we have tourism going on here. But it is always about whites — they want to drive us out like stray dogs. If we bark we’re told to shut up, go away.

“But our minds are always regarded as black; no one wants to hear our voices. The white-owned mining company wants to drive us away from the coast. But today I’m declaring: there won’t be mining in Xolobeni or any other section of Amadiba.”