Our spirituality will move mountains
SHE may be 83, but Mama Grace Masuku’s memories of her rare visits to the sacred mountain known as Beautiful Blood are still as vivid as when she was a young woman.
It isn’t just the striking beauty of the Madimatle Mountain where she would stand proudly to worship that she remembers, or the vast Gatkop caves that lead under it, but the deep spiritual connection she felt with her ancestors.
Throughout her life, she would hold the mountain, which towers over Limpopo’s small iron mining dorp of Thabazimbi, close to her heart. “There are things our elders teach us from the stars,” says Masuku, who lives several hundred kilometres away in the North West. “As you grow, there are periods you are compelled to go to Madimatle to reconnect with them.”
Masuku, a traditionalist, environmentalist and community worker, who has been honoured by former president Thabo Mbeki for her philanthropic work, says this mountain is known to be the home of ancestors’ spirits of those African people who died in the Gatkop caves and on the mountain. “The place is not sacred purely because it is a mountain, but rather for its rich history,” she explains.
Masuku, who has been named a National Living Treasure by the National Heritage Council, thought the mountain would be safe for generations – until last year, when she heard of plans by the local subsidiary of a then-Australian mining company, Aquila, to scour its peak for iron ore.
“In my culture, if a person wants to destroy you, they only need to destroy your roots, and thus your identity is destroyed,” Masuku explains. “Without your identity, you simply have no value as a person. Once our identity is lost and our ancestors have retreated, we shall no longer enjoy protection by the ancestors. This is frightening.”
Angered by Aquila’s plans, Masuku joined forces with local landowners, the Traditional Healers Association of SA and the Kara Heritage Institute, in a legal battle to oppose the company’s exploratory mining bid on Madimatle. They were represented by Werksmans Attorneys.
And, in a landmark decision, the SA Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra), listened to their pleas to safeguard the revered mountain. It has now provisionally approved protection of the sacred mountain, ruling that all exploratory mining activity near the mountain and its caves be halted for the next two years because of its cultural and religious significance.
Aquila Resources is appealing this ruling as the agency considers the call to declare the area a national heritage site.
After the two-year period ends, Werksmans attor ney Bulelwa Mabasa predicts a battle within the government over its future.
“We’ll find the different arms of government at loggerheads,” she says.
“The Minerals Resources Minister cares about foreign direct investment, the Arts and Culture Minister has a mandate to protect our heritage, and the Minister of Environmental Affairs about the environment.
“If there is any litigation at any point, it will become a challenge of the rights of religion and culture, freedom of economic activity, and of course environmental law.”
James Duncan, the spokesman for Aquila Resources, told the Saturday Star that Aquila is now owned by one of China’s largest and most respected companies, the Baosteel Group.
“The company acknowledges the important role of Sahra, and of the need to protect sites identified and designated to be of significance historically, culturally and environmentally.
“In this instance, it has been the company’s intention from the outset of exploration activities to preserve the cave in question.
“This has infor med the company’s decision to appeal the Sahra provisional protection, and this appeal is being prepared.”
But if the mountain is mined, it will cause spiritual genocide, maintains the Traditional Healers Organisation, who say both the landmark and its intricate cave system – and the wildlife they support – holds “special healing power”.
“Visitors to the mountains and caves have witnessed miracles first hand … People visit the mountain and caves from as far as Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
“We strongly oppose any mining activity on the mountain and caves … in the event that mining is con- ducted on the mountain, the spirits will be destroyed and this equates to spiritual genocide.”
Dr Mathole Motshekga of the Kara Heritage Institute, explains that Madimatle and the Gatkop Caves remain “endangered” because of the valuable iron resources they contain.
“Madimatle is a very spiritual and sacred place for the community,” says Motshekga. “Mining will produce noise pollution, disturbance for prayers and have an effect on the environmental resources. It is impossible to reconstruct the natural order or spirituality of a people. The caves known as Gatkop are the gateway to the ancestors. It is believed people died in the caves and the bones lie there.
“Mountains,” he notes, “act as a sanctuary to the African people. It is where people go for religious, spiritual and cultural purposes. This is an inheritance of heritage handed over from generation to generation and should continue to prevail. It is a place where the ancestors of the Bakgatla people reside. This is where the Bakgatla people would receive their blessings and signs from the ancestors.”
In a report on the cultural heritage of the Madimatla cave and surrounding area, Professor CJ van Vuuren of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Unisa notes how it has always been known as a site of tranquillity and quietness, a “fitting environment” in which to communicate with the ancestral world. “The integrity of … noises belonging to the ancestral village will forever be risked once mining activities commence.”
But for now, says David Hertz, the director of Werksmans, that sense of peace will remain. He says: “No one is moving a brick or stone on that mountain, without Sahra consent.”
He views the case as a foreignowned mining outfit “riding roughshod” over the cultural and religious rights of South Africans. “Can you imagine what would happen if they found iron ore in the base of Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia, an area with massive significance to the local population. Equally can we imagine excavating the Western Wall in Jerusalem or the blue mosque in Turkey?”
While Aquila Resources believes its impacts can be mitigated, Justin Truter, who heads the environmental law division at Werksmans, is not so sure. He says: “We’ve got a number of mining clients … what you’ll often find is you have certain mining companies who are more responsible and take their duty to the environment and social impact more seriously, where others pay lip service to it and use consultants to gloss over their impact. Unfortunately, in Aquila’s case, it is the latter and has been acting unlawfully since 2007.”
The area in the company’s sights is not only culturally important but is also “one of the most pristine environments” in the region and is “covered” in red-data plants and animals that use vital ecological corridors, Truter states.
“But over the past eight years, this company has scraped, and illegally blasted roads … with significant impact. They were entitled to scrape 1.6km of roads but they built 33km. They were supposed to have 10 drilling sites. They had 200. They removed protected trees as recently as early last year.
“They (Aquila) have shown an absolutely flagrant disregard for the prospecting licence conditions and the impact their activities have had on spiritual rights, and this pristine environment.”
These “allegations”, insists Duncan, are being addressed with the relevant regulators.
Masuku, who has won accolades for her own environmental work, says too often culture is simply disregarded by mining entities.
“Foreign entities that invest in South Africa by means of mining its minerals often choose to mine on land which contains the seeds of the ancestors’ spirits … I wish to protect the African heritage we have inherited from our ancestors.”