Rural communities in mining charter victory

SEVERAL communities affected by mining in South Africa scored a victory yesterday when the high court in Pretoria allowed them to enter the legal battle against the controversial 2017 Mining Charter. These communities will, on December 13 and 14, face the government in court, where they will fight alongside the Chamber of Mines to have the charter set aside. The rural communities of Bakgatla Ba Sefikile, Lesetlheng, Babina Phuthi Ba Ga-Makola and Kgatlu, on whose ancestral land mining activities are taking place by mining giants, will, with the help of Lawyers for Human Rights, go even further and ask the court to allow them to be part of the process of drafting a new charter.