The killing of activists is increasing worldwide

The brutality of killing activists for protecting their land and environment is not isolated to South Africa: in 2019, 212 defenders were killed around the world.

This is figure contained in a Global Witness report released in July. The nongovernmental organisation’s report highlighted mining as the deadliest sector for activists. Fifty were killed worldwide last year. In total, more than four activists were killed every week in 2019. These figures have spiked 30%, from 164 recorded in 2018.

The killing of Fikile Ntshangase has galvanised South African activists, who said they will not back down and would continue fighting against mining in their regions, despite the wanton violence and deaths meted out to defenders.

The assassination of Ntshangase on 22 October, also sparked an international outcry, including from the United States-based Human Rights Watch.

“Mining was the deadliest sector, with 50 defenders killed in 2019. Agribusiness continues to wreak destruction, with 34 defenders killed, and 85% of such attacks recorded in Asia,” the Global Witness report said. Half of the reported killings in 2019 took place in Colombia and the Philippines, with the former country showing its highest-ever recorded numbers.

Indigenous people, the report stated, are also the disproportionately killed for their environmental activism, making up 40% of deaths worldwide. Back in South Africa, former chairperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe, was also shot and killed in March 2016 for his organisation’s relentless fight to stop an Australian company from mining titanium from the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast dunes.

Sibusiso Mqadi, the current

ACC chairperson, told the Mail & Guardian last week that the committee was prepared to die for their land and to prevent mining operations. “As the ACC, we took a painful resolution that, at the end of the day, they will not kill us all.”