Department of Mineral Resources should step in to take control of wild coast prospecting

28 March 2016

The killing of wild coast community activist Sikhosiphi Rhadebe has highlighted a glaring weakness in the government’s mineral rights allocation processes.

Rhadebe was leading opposition to proposed mineral sands mining near Bizana. His murder amid heightened community conflict underlines the widespread practice of mining companies running roughshod over the objections of local people to their operations.

If government is to follow its policy of being the final arbiter of who gets to mine and where, it needs to make sure that there is proper consultation with and compensation for local communities.

The conflict occasioned by the proposal to mine the Xolobeni Mineral Sands is now undeniably out of control. The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) needs to halt the process and keep a close watch to ensure both these processes take place properly and transparently. 

The suitability of the company Mineral Commodities to be involved is such a sensitive process must be in doubt. Company operations in the Western Cape have led to business and community conflict and allegations of environmental abuses and cowboy conduct. Despite this the Department of Mineral Resources has been unusually helpful in facilitating its operations.

Local residents have opposed mines on their doorstep from Mpumalanga to the Northern Cape. They generally get short shrift from the Department which has allowed what can only be described as sharp practices in the way companies have nominally complied with rules around the allocation of mineral rights.

The DMR needs to suspend the prospecting process around Xolobeni. It needs to properly examine all the business practices of Mineral Commodities to ensure that all rules and processes are being properly observed at all its operations. It needs to reassure the public that the company is the right one to be awarded the rights to prospect in such a sensitive area.

While this is happening the police need to urgently find and arrest those responsible for Rhadebe’s killing and need to establish the motive for it.

Statement issued by James Lorimer MP, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources, 28 March 2016