Fury at Shabangu’s mining about-turn
AN Australian mining giant, barred from exploiting part of the Wild Coast three years ago, will now be allowed in.
Transworld Energy and Minerals will be granted a licence to mine there “within days”.
The announcement of this surprise turnaround was made by the very person who once revoked the company’s licence after it had been granted.
Susan Shabangu, former minerals minister and now the minister of women in the Presidency, broke the news this week to a community that had opposed the project. She said a new licence “would be issued within days” and that the people who had previously opposed the planned mine now supported it.
In August 2012, a group from the Xolobeni community called the Amadiba Crisis Committee filed an objection to a prospecting rights application by Transworld, which is part of Australian miner MRC.
MRC said on its website the area had a capacity to be a “world-class ilmenite asset”. Ilmenite is mined for titanium dioxide, a white powder used as a base pigment in paint, paper and plastics. The Xolobeni area is believed to have the world’s tenth-largest deposit.
MRC, which claims to maintain “the highest ethical and environmental standards”, said the Xolobeni project would be a “catalyst for social transformation of one of South Africa’s poorest communities”.
Shabangu delivered news of the mining at Xolobeni when she addressed about 50 ANC councillors in the Alfred Nzo
It keeps coming back . . . The government keeps letting it come back
district of the Eastern Cape this week.
She said that before her term as minerals minister ended, she sent a delegation to the Eastern Cape and was informed that people who had opposed the planned mine were now supporting it.
But community members interviewed were outraged by the change. Bhalasheni Mthwa, an elder, said the community had been fighting against the mining company for years. “But it’s like a frog, it keeps coming back . . . the government keeps letting it come back. Why won’t the government stop them?”
Mthwa said although development was welcome, it should not happen if land was destroyed in the process.
It appears the planned mine has even infuriated the ANC.
Ntlahla Hlebo, an ANC ward councillor from the Alfred Nzo region, said news of the licence was “a shock”, especially since large parts of the community strongly opposed the plan.
Hlebo said there were concerns in the community, which is dominated by ANC members and supporters, that the party is imposing something the community oppose.
A spokesman for the Mineral Resources Department said he “could not comment” on the statements made at the meeting or provide clarity about when a mining licence would be issued.
Shabangu’s spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
Andrew Lashbrook, CEO of Transworld, said “nothing would make me happier than being awarded the licence ... but we have heard nothing”.
Mzamo Dlamini, a member of the crisis committee, said ecotourism was the best option for the area. “We had been making progress with ecotourism until the mining company arrived. That has created so much uncertainty and discord that no one will invest in tourism facilities.”