Use your vote to voice dissatisfaction

THE articles “Bleak harvest for farmers under threat of mining” and “Coal scavengers risk lives underground” (November 22) are clear indications that both black and white South Africans have the same enemy, and that is our government.

This government has failed to protect water sources for the farmers and failed to force the mines to offer jobs to the community as they promised. I am outraged as our people continue to suffer at the hands of the government. It has the power but it chooses to ignore the plight of the community.

As we head into local elections next year, I urge the people in Mpumalanga to stand together, not lose hope, make a mark where it counts and vote. Use your vote to show your dissatisfaction! — Upset SA Citizen, by e-mail MINING and the enforcement of departmental policy supersede our constitutional rights. The environment act is abused daily by the government’s misguided pursuit of mineral resources.

The effects on communities are devastating. They lose their land and means of sustaining themselves and do not receive the promised jobs. The result is that they become indigent and the numbers of the poor increase massively.

Our government is stealing from its people to enrich itself, as many members of the government have mining shares or interests. — Judith

Taylor, by e-mail The editor reserves the right to edit letters. Correspondence must include your name, address and a phone number