Introduction.

This narrative report explains the progress made in achieving the objectives of “Sustaining the Wild Coast Association”, (SWC) (formerly “Save the Wild Coast Campaign”).

SWC is a value-based, civil society organization and social movement, for charitable activities whose aims are “to promote sustainable livelihoods that conserve, rehabilitate and protect the natural environment, including the geosphere and the biosphere, by means of research, public education, advocacy, and the execution of projects and programmes directed towards the promotion of ‘grassroots’ insights into what action is needed to ensure the long term sustainability of livelihoods of people who depend on the Wild Coast region and to act as a ‘watchdog’ to identify unsustainable and harmful practices, that destroy the integrity of the natural environment and threaten the life prospects of current and future generations” (from the Memorandum of Association of the SWC as finalised in September 2006).

As the report explains, SWC is positioning itself to engage in appropriate action, and is seeking financial support from various sources in this regard.

Context and Background

Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC) originated in 2002 under the name ‘Save the Wild Coast’ as a loose affiliation of people who cherish the Pondoland Wild Coast. SWC believes the region, with its unique biodiversity and landscape, has great potential for rural communities to develop a sustainable livelihood, both in the material sense of increasing their living standards through sustainable use of existing resources and in the holistic sense of enhancing their quality of life, by offering visitors - from South Africa and abroad - an unique eco-tourism experience. A key partner in this endeavour has been the Southern Africa Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI). Bishop Geoff Davies, SAFCEI executive director, is also a founding member of SWC, and SAFCEI hosts the SWC campaign on its website www.safcei.org.za.

In a global context of growing disillusionment with the ability of conventional industrial and commercial development to satisfy fundamental human needs in an ecologically sustainable manner, the Pondoland Wild Coast seemed the perfect setting to pioneer an alternative, more satisfying development path.

The main (but not exclusive) focus of attention was the Amadiba and neighbouring Tribal Administrative Area (including the Mkambati Nature Reserve) and the Mntentu River that bisected the two areas, ending in one of the most spectacular, unspoilt river estuaries in the world (see above).

SWC founder ‘Green Bishop’ Geoff Davies, above Msikaba River Gorge, home to a rare colony of Cape Griffon Vultures, threatened by the road proposal.

The SWC campaign precipitated a general alarm within South African civil society when three largely abstract development “solutions” were put on the table by different institutions and agencies of government, to ostensibly ‘solve’ the problems of ‘poverty and under-development’ in the region.

• A proposal to construct a modern high-speed national road (N2) motorway to design standards considered wholly inappropriate, that would be routed along the coastline through the Pondoland centre of Plant Endemism, to shorten the distance between Durban and East London by 85 km’s. The construction cost would be financed by a tolling concession awarded to a consortium of construction companies who made an “unsolicited bid” in terms of the South African National Road Agency’s (SANRAL) policy to engage private sector in public/private partnerships. However the route required three large bridges to span the, Mzamba, Mntentu and Msikaba river gorges at a cost of approximately R2 Billion which could not be financed from tolling revenues, requiring subsidy from the state treasury. SANRAL and the N2 Wild Coast Consortium were the drivers of that proposal, with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) holding responsibility for legislative compliance, since the proposed route would traverse environmentally sensitive areas.

• A proposal to mine the sand dunes along a 22km coastal strip from Port Edward to the Mntentu River of titanium and heavy mineral deposits (see below), as a partnership between an Australian Mining Exploration company Mineral Commodoties LTD (MRC) and South African Black Economic Empowerment entities (Xolobeni Empowerment Company). The Departments of Mineral and Energy Affairs (DME) and DEAT are responsible for overall legislative compliance.

• A proposal to declare a Pondoland National Park that would raise the profile of the eco-tourism potential of the area by having the South African National Parks agency (SANPARKS) assume overall responsibility for a national conservation area. While the boundaries were not set the first proposal included the Mkambati Nature Reserve and surrounding areas including the Xolobeni coastal strip which contains the mineral deposits. DEAT is the main driver of this initiative.

Each proposal has an ambiguous relationship with the other two, and while the various large institutions and interests groups at national, provincial and local government level lobbied and/or fought each other, the livelihoods and prospects of people most vulnerable and affected - isolated rural families - continued to decline.

The situation called for vigorous civil society involvement to ensure all agendas, both stated and hidden, were interrogated, and to ensure a transparent, democratic and inclusive consultation process.

The World Bank/UNDP/DBSA funded Wild Coast Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Project was completed in March 2006 and their reports publicised to various audiences. This set the stage for a more informed approach to planning. This was followed by the formation of an inter-agency coordination structure of environmental NGO’s to ensure better sensitivity to on-the-ground dynamics. SWC founder members Dr Nick King (CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust) and Sandy Heather (education consultant to the Wilderness Foundation) participated in that structure to develop synergy and coherence.

Accomplishments.

Objectives.	Achievements
1. To lobby for the proposed Toll Road to be re-aligned to ensure it benefited the majority of the impoverished community and to avoid interfering with the eco-tourism potential of the area, and affecting the considerable biodiversity and endemic plant species found only in the Wild Coast area.	The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism was successfully persuaded to set aside the initial positive record of decision to allow the N2 WCC proposal to go ahead, because of fatal flaws in the EIA. The EIA consultants (Bohlweki Environmental) were fired and replaced with CCA Environmental and Nomi Mutiali and Associates.SWC put considerable effort into lobbing for an alternative alignment and to persuade SANRAL and senior officials in the Ministry of Transport to abandon the intent to toll (which favours private sector and national urban interests over those of poor rural people) as a financing mechanism. The success of these efforts will be known when the Final Scoping Report is released in Jan 2007.
2. To lobby to ensure the rural road infrastructure is upgraded so that the communities would have better access to clinics, schools and services.	The situation has in fact deteriorated in the year, due also to abnormally heavy rainfall. The reluctance shown by the local municipal authorities to maintain, let alone upgrade, the rural road infrastructure was exposed in the environmental television program 50/50 aired on national TV, which SWC facilitated. Community members interviewed questioned whether the neglect was a ploy to force the local community into accepting mining as the only viable means of improving infrastructure.Reports just received indicate that the local municipal authority has now commenced with maintenance and repairs to the worst roads, as a direct result of SWC’s media campaigning.
3. To lobby the authorities to ensure that a cultural heritage site is proclaimed in the area targeted for dune mining for heavy minerals, so as to preserve the significant cultural heritage and thus to preclude the prospect of dune mining altogether.	This objective emerged when Stone Age artefacts - dating back to the Sangoan era some 300,000 years ago - were discovered in the same dunes that the mining exploration company hopes to mine. Prof Cathy Kuman of Wits University Archaeology Dept conducted field investigations and her report (available on request) confirms the heritage value of the area. However the actions of mining aligned forces to prevent her research showed that an intensive and protracted campaign against the mining exploration interests needs to be waged, and SWC is positioning itself to engage in litigation if necessary.Thanks to the invaluable advice and guidance from Dr Stefan Cramer, a professional mining geologist (and liaison for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in South Africa), SWC was able to develop a more in-depth understanding of the scientific, political and economic issues at stake with regard to the mining.
4. To promote eco-tourism as a sustainable long term option for poverty alleviation, income generation and economic development strategy in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals	Environmental NGO’s hosted media representatives on a tour of the area In April 2006. However community members were intimidated into not speaking to them, as part of ACCODA/Xolco manipulation. This reinforced suspicion that the mining and toll road interests were deliberately sabotaging the eco-tourism enterprise. The 50/50 TV report uncovered damning evidence to this effect.SWC member and social worker John Clarke was contracted by local residents for professional services to support them in their effort to expose the injustices. He in turn introduced human rights attorney Richard Spoor to the community to ensure that the ‘manipulated consent’ strategy of the mining interest was exposed.

Unexpected developments ……… Action taken.

• Media relations ran into trouble due to differences in approach among SWC members. SWC formulated a communications policy and procedure, which smoothed tensions and enhanced visibility of SWC concerns beyond environmental and provincial audiences. Local and international media relations are now in a very healthy state.

• Founder member and main campaigner Cathy Kay withdrew for personal reasons. Trebled SWC steering committee from the original three to a total of nine persons to ensure requisite variety and thus resilience in responding to the complexities of a dynamically changing situation. John Clarke undertook to pick up the networking role that Cathy left and to drive the campaign objectives forward, in return for SWC support for his professional social work services to vulnerable community members whose livelihoods were affected by sabotage of eco-tourism and problems in the governance of ACCODA and management of Amadiba Adventures.

• Publication of the prestigious book Mkambati and Pondoland’s Wild Coast: South Africa’s Forgotten Wilderness, which won awards and helped raise the profile of the Wild Coast. Introduced co-author John Costello to the SWC and helped promote the book as widely as possible.

• Alternative Alignments Workshops were called where it emerged that SANRAL chose to fight the N2WCC’s battle for them, thereby aligning with private sector interests rather then public benefit. SWC managed to bring together sustained pressure to ensure the consultants presented SANRAL with a clear case for the realignment away from their preferred route through the Pondoland Centre of Endemism (PCE), and to challenge SANRAL’s perceived bias. John Clarke interviewed and transcribed both Nazir Alli (SANRAL) and Bishop Geoff Davies (SAFCEI/SWC), to ensure wide understanding of the issues, and to clearly distinguish between the normative, strategic and operational issues, so that each issue could be addressed at the appropriate level. (See www.safcei.org.za, for interviews).

• Archaeological Investigation by Prof Cathy Kuman interfered with. SWC facilitated meeting of Wits research team with the Pondo Royal family for a complaint to be made. This relationship led to introduction of Sinegugu Zukulu (who was assisting the Wits research team) to SWC, who has become a key member and exercising a growing leadership role to ensure SWC develops an ever increasing credibility in the eyes of local community members, by educating them as to the relevance and benefits of broader civil society processes of networking and lobbying.

• Pondo National Park initiative by DEAT backfired due to combination of a disinformation campaign to discredit environmental NGO’s (instigated by mining aligned interests), National/provincial government jurisdictional disputes and antagonisms and naivety of DEAT in their attempts to cultivate understanding of the benefits of a National Park. (Apparently a group of local leaders were taken to Kruger Park to see the benefits of what a national park could bring, but the group completely misinterpreted what they saw, fearing the introduction of large animals that would destroy their lands and crops). SWC members interpreted this as indicative of how damaging the stark (and completely false) dichotomy between ‘green’ and ‘brown’ agendas are. SWC is currently working closely with SAFCEI to challenge that dichotomy by incubating and promoting the concept of an “Olive Agenda”, to be pursued, using the metaphor of ‘olive’ as a blending of Green and Brown issues and thus to transcend and reconcile them on the Wild Coast.

How the situation changed.

SWC members met over a long weekend in August to evaluate progress and strategise, (as well as enjoy the splendours of the Wild Coast. See photo opposite with the ‘Green Bishop’ characteristically leading the way).

Apart from all the problems and issues associated with each of the three big ‘institutional solutions’, the SWC members were aware that the mining aligned forces had been working to undermine the environmental cause by creating doubt and suspicion among the local community as to the sincerity of ‘Cathy Kay and the wildlife organisations’. In effect the mining protagonists in the community, (influential people who had been co-opted by the mining company) were projecting the very doubts people had about mining onto the ‘greenies’ instead, caricaturing them as ‘outsiders who don’t care about poor people’. This negative stereotype image of the ‘greenies’ caused one of SWC’s close allies, the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) - who with the Alliance of Rural Communities (ARC) had asked SWC to assist in their research exercise to canvass the real extent of community awareness of the N2 Toll Road proposal - to tactically distance themselves from SWC and not take the money allocated, so as to deny the mining and toll road protagonists any grounds for ‘discrediting’ the survey as an ‘exercise in pushing the green agenda that cares more for birds and butterflies than poor people who need jobs and access to the outside world’.

The relationship with ARC and CORC has in fact become even stronger, but the challenge remains to find ways of undoing the disinformation and propaganda spread by the mining agents, and challenge the prejudice toward environmentalists, who are portrayed as ‘wealthy people, exclusively interested in nature conservation as a mere recreational pastime’. Interestingly Nazir Alli, SANRAL CEO used this very stereotype to imply that the objections to the Toll Road were coming mainly from people in Gauteng and the Western Cape with 4×4’s who “were beneficiaries of apartheid” and “had no social vision”.

Given the poor image in some quarters, the SWC steering committee agreed that the name and profile of the movement needed to be revised and repositioned. A professional international Organisational Development consultant, Luc Hoebeke, facilitated a process pro bono to enable SWC to address its own normative, strategic and operational issues, and the following clarity emerged.

Focusing Normative Intent.

SWC burnished its normative purpose by changing its name to Sustaining the Wild Coast. This was to indicate our belief that insofar as the Wild Coast needed to be ‘saved’, it would happen by sustaining the endogenous life forces already present within its environment, which we found so magnificent.

Furthermore SWC worked on a new motto and, aided by popular Xhosa speaking radio announcer Jeff Moloi, settled on Uphuhliso lwabantu, uqoqosho, nemvelo yinkqubo enye (upliftment of people, economy and environment are all one process).

The fortuitous introduction of Sinegugu Zukulu to the pioneering group enabled SWC to connect more intimately into his network of community relationships in the Amadiba Tribal Authority area, rendering all the abstractions around the toll road, mining and national park “solutions”, into real life and death matters. (He has in fact received death threats for his outspokenness, but shows a remarkable fearlessness and conviction that has been an inspiration to the original members.)

Our facilitator Luc Hoebeke guided the SWC steering committee to avoid splitting purpose from practice emphasising that “the purpose of a system is what it does” (a favourite line of Luc’s, coined by the late Systems Thinking pioneer Stafford Beer). Normative intent required ‘fleshing out’ in practical engagement and learning through doing.

Achieving Strategic Effectiveness.

Accordingly the group agreed on two broad sets of activities that they hoped would give concrete meaning to SWC’s normative purpose.

1) Facilitating Learning. SWC will create a ‘platform’ for a broad spectrum of stakeholders to explore and make concrete a vision for sustainable social, economic and environmental development for the region. This platform will be available to local communities, traditional authorities, development agencies, NGO’s and interested individuals as well as other stakeholders with a legitimate interest in furthering the best practices of sustainable social, economic and environmental development in the region. The platform aims at stimulating broad debates about sustainable development for the people of the Wild Coast region and surrounds so that organizations and citizens are able to make qualitatively better decisions in their areas of responsibility in order to avoid controversial, polarizing, conflicting and ultimately unsustainable implementation of policies and plans.

2) Watching out for lawbreakers: SWC will develop the requisite capability to serve as an advocacy and legal resource organization with powers to act with locus standii in challenging any person or organization believed to be in violation of South Africa’s environmental and human rights legislation, as it applies in the region, and if necessary to appeal to the Constitutional Court for the protection of vulnerable eco-systems, heritage endowments, and life giving resources that occur in the region.

In the months that ensued since the August workshop intensive work has been done to build the credibility of SWC as an organisation that is strategically effective in respect of these two ‘planks’ of SWC’s platform.

Facilitating Learning. The joint efforts by the nine SWC subscribing members, has both reinforced and expanded SWC’s networks for learning. It is largely through SWC effort in building up a large communications network/matrix of people, media and organisations - ranging from interested individuals to eco-tour operators to conservation bodies to social organisations - that has ensured the Wild Coast issues have become a media ‘hot potato’ and a concern of the national (and indeed international) public. It is remarkable that SWC’s hitherto unfunded, voluntary effort has helped to keep all these people ‘in the loop’ about issues involving the Wild Coast and built a groundswell of interest and support. However learning is a continuous process, and even if the new road is realigned, much work remains to be done to ensure the claimed benefits and advantages do in fact materialise.

Sinegugu Zukulu has helped make the vital connection between ‘global thinking’ and ‘local action’, which SWC was weak in, especially since Cathy Kay’s departure for the USA.

A conference is planned within the next year to bring all stakeholders together for a few days to reap the benefit of all the feverish networking, and in particular to ensure that full lessons are learned from past ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ to bring ‘development’ to the Wild Coast.

Legal Watchdog Role. To fulfil the environmental monitoring/ legal watchdog role professional legal resources needed to be marshalled.

Winstanley Cullinan, South Africa’s top environmental law firm has continued to provide legal advice and guidance in respect of environmental legislation, with Cormac Cullinan acting on SWC’s behalf.

Well known Human Rights Attorney Richard Spoor (pictured opposite at the Xolobeni mineral sands site) was introduced to the situation, and is providing legal advice to ensure the proposed mining exploration and plans do not occur in violation of the land and constitutional rights of local tribal communities.

SWC members Sinegugu Zukulu and John Clarke combined to introduce the multi-award winning TV producer Sandra Herrington to people at the grassroots. Sandra had previously done programs on the situation, but hadn’t quite managed to get to the ‘deep down and dirty’ reality in her previous reports. She produced an excellent 22minute report entitled “Wild Coast Corruption”, that was broadcast on the SABC environmental program ‘50/50′ to wide acclaim (except from the mining company). This led in turn to a number of other media reports that have raised the public profile of SWC to unprecedented levels. The program has been sent to Australian broadcasters and civil society contacts as well, to put further pressure on the Australian mining company.

SWC communications network helped to distribute and relay information to the public about other various issues affecting the region, most notably:-

- Problems caused by squads of quad bikers with no regard for the law, the environment or communal lands.

- The illegal felling of indigenous forests.

- Illegal cottages.

- The desecration and theft of the old ‘Grosvenor’ winch at Lambasi bay.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency.

Anticipating the need for considerably more resources than a simple voluntary organisation could mobilise (especially if court action was to be successfully prosecuted) the main Operational decision was for SWC to register as a Public Benefit Organisation under Section 21 (not for profit) of the Companies Act, so that donations could be sought.

John Clarke was given a mandate to use seed funding of $4 000 provided by Global Green Grants to commence this process, as well as to do whatever needed to be done to build momentum so as to be able to give an excellent account to the Global Greengrant Fund as to how their grant was used.

The funds of SWC are currently managed and accounted for within the EWT’s accounting structures, which will continue until such time as SWC has received Section 21 registration (pending), and more funding to run a set of accounts of its own. An auditor has been appointed, Dave Douglas and Associates, who is also assisting in ensuring SWC is fully compliant with all legislation to function as a not-for-profit Public Benefit Organisation. It is anticipated that all these administrative and legal operations will be completed by February 2007.

Whom are we trying to influence? How are they responding to our efforts?

Implicit in the two ‘planks’ that comprise the SWC ‘platform’ is the recognition that influence has to be brought to bear on the following:-

• Government officials responsible for implementing environmental and other laws and policies. The provincial and local government of the Eastern Cape continues to show itself generally incapable and incompetent, and in a continuing state of crisis. Some SWC members believe that by applying continued pressure and a steady stream of complaints, the system will gradually increase its capacity to respond. Others feel that emphasis should be laid in inspiring leadership, rather than forcing compliance. A combination of both seems the prudent way to go. The publication of the beautiful Mkambati “Coffee Table” book certainly inspired very many more people, and got official ‘buy-in’. It has paved the way for a follow up publication that goes to still greater depths into the history of Pondoland, and the Wild Coast. Such a book seems overdue and now urgent, and resources are needed to liberate Sinegugu Zukulu and John Clarke to in fact write the book.

• Institutional Decision makers in government, business and civil society. Senior staff in the DBSA have said they are encouraged by the efforts of SWC. The environmental NGO’s appear likewise to be more hopeful, but it is still doubtful if the tourism industry is turning around from the decline it has experienced.

• Local rural households. It is discouraging to realise that local people and their aspirations have so often been bypassed as the scenic and ecological splendour grabs the attention of visitors. This has led to considerable distrust of ‘outsiders’ by a people who were always noted for their hospitality and gentleness. SWC is incubating ideas that affirm and value the traditional culture and way of life and assist people to regain pride in what has been undermined by political hegemony, materialism, and a Westernised consumerist way of life.

• Well-travelled visitors needing a unique eco-tourism experience. In contrast to local households when well-travelled visitors encounter the Wild Coast for the first time they cannot believe such a place still exists. Introducing people to the Wild Coast has a dramatic transformational effect in their thinking.

The Way Ahead for the SWC.

Of all the stakeholders listed it is perhaps the highly paradoxical interests of local rural households and well-travelled eco-tourists that will propel SWC into the future. It is in fact the same paradox implicit in the environmentalist mantra ‘Think Globally: Act Locally’ that the 1992 Rio Earth Summit popularised.

To use an apt metaphor (given the incredible biodiversity contained in the indigenous forests on the Wild Coast) it is about ‘seeing both the forest and the trees’. Local people, embedded ‘among the trees’ in often extremely isolated settings, are not conscious that they are in fact part of a unique and highly endangered ‘forest’, and not having travelled widely, assume the whole planet is much like the Wild Coast.

Yet visitors who have travelled the planet in search of an ever receding, authentic ‘wilderness experience’, find on the Wild Coast a great consolation that it is still possible to experience the natural world in a rare combination of geological and ecological forces that bring land and ocean into dramatic contest/cooperation that seem to hold untold secrets of the evolution of life itself. Such visitors - be they scientists, restless pilgrims, or just accidental travellers - once infected by the Wild Coast ‘bug’ run the risk of developing a fanatical messianic zeal, to “save it” for motives than cannot be simply attributed to commercial self-interest. The Wild Coast is attractive precisely because it is wild, yet the first impulse of visitors is to ‘tame’ it. There is immense potential for eco-tourists to be accommodated in both community based and conventional tourism facilities. But the Wild Coast must be experienced on its own terms, and any development should conserve its unique character.

It is the movement of these two ‘jaws’ - developing local hospitality and enhancing global consciousness - that will generate SWC success in 2007 and beyond. Things are now very delicately poised. How can SWC ensure ‘failure isn’t snapped from the jaws of success’?

Mineral Commodities, although bruised, is not yet beaten. It is unlikely to surrender its prospecting lease, and even if MRC collapses, it is only a matter of time before another mining exploration entity takes over.

South Africa’s economy was built almost entirely on the extraction of mineral wealth, but since minerals are a non-renewable resource, prudence demands that a long term perspective be taken to avoid a ‘boom and bust/ casino capital’ economy. The amaMpondo people have already seen how much the construction and operation of the Wild Coast Casino on their land has cost them. However the casino continues to produce enormous benefits for its owners and shareholders, who in their accumulation of vast wealth are able to continue dispensing considerable largesse. As gambling tycoon Sol Kerzner successfully bribed the late Paramount Chief Kaiser Matanzima 25 years ago to effectively steal the land from the local residents to build a casino, the mining company is attempting a similar strategy.

Although Kerzner has since admitted to having paid a bribe, he suffers no legal consequence, claiming it was extorted. As Elias Ogle - the leader of families that were chased off their land (pictured above in his vehicle that was clearly not ‘donated’ by the mining or gambling interests) - explained, they are still waiting for justice and reparation.

There are many lessons to be learned from the Wild Coast Casino debacle, but for SWC’s strategic purposes perhaps the overriding lesson is that if one wishes to understand the dynamics of extractive industries like mining, one need look no further than the gambling industry, for it has perfected the art of extracting wealth for the benefit of very few at the cost of very, very many. As it happens R420,000 (approx $60,000) of a Presidential Award of R750,000 to Amadiba Adventures for “the most outstanding eco-tourism initiative in 2000″ was gambled away by a gambling addicted employee, never to be recovered (at least this is the official story, which some doubt, because the employees story is that she withdrew the funds from the account ‘under instructions’).

With this lesson from recent history to inform them it becomes clear why local communities would be naturally ill disposed towards both gambling and mining. Both are essentially wasting industries, and in the Wild Coast context seem to reinforce each other. However with mining there is much more at stake than the fortunes of hapless individuals seduced into the addictive lure of the Wild Coast casino. Gambling presupposes disposable income, which poor people by definition don’t have. Without very effective regulation and control, SWC attorney Richard Spoor has warned that - from his experience in the Platinum rich areas of the Bushveld Complex - mining will rob poor rural households of the only resource they do have: their land and its reproductive capacity in respect of both agriculture and eco-tourism.

Like the Bushveld Complex, the Wild Coast contains an abundance of non-renewable minerals. But unlike those communities on the Platinum rich reefs, the Wild Coast also has an abundance of irreplaceable endemic plants and biodiversity. Long after the minerals have been mined out, people will still pay money to experience unspoilt nature, at an increasing premium given the progressive disappearance of such places. The only conceivable justification for mining non-renewable resources like titanium and platinum would be to contribute to the formation of local financial capital for the development of a non-wasting industry like eco-tourism, to take over once the mineral wealth is exhausted. To make the transaction fair to all parties, a rental would need to be negotiated between the owners of the land and any mining company intent on making a profit from the sale of the minerals. It stands to reason that the determination of such a ‘mineral rent’ should firstly compensate for the loss of revenue, the opportunity cost, from other uses of that land while the mining takes place. Secondly it should make provision for the asset to be at least rehabilitated to its original state (if not improved).

When one considers that tourism is currently the fastest growing industry in South Africa it makes the equation increasingly unfavourable to any mining enterprise, because projections of opportunity costs start to soar exponentially. But if the rich, industrialised countries of the world cannot do without titanium, platinum etc, they must pay for it. They can afford it.

Given the above analysis, SWC needs in the course of 2007, to make sure that ‘common sense’ in fact becomes more common, and to develop both its ‘sense’ of what ‘taproots’ lie beneath the ‘grassroots’, waiting to spring to new life, to sustain the Wild Coast.

Conclusion.

“If I could ask one thing of a crystal ball, it wouldn’t be ‘what is wrong?’ and ‘how can I fix it?’ I would ask ‘what is possible?’ and ‘who cares?’”

Martin Wiesbord.

One is struck by the fact that when many people really do care to connect, together they make possible what seemed to be unthinkable in isolation. Thus to attempt to thank everyone who has made SWC successful would be impossible, for SWC has been successful precisely because it is a system of human inter-connections, rather than a collection of ‘spare parts’.

To further ‘metabolise’ the considerable creative synergetic potential that lies latent in its growing network of people SWC will however need more financial resources.

Financial Report.

Sustaining the Wild Coast Campaign
Financial Report on grant utilization of Global Green Grants Fund. # 51-295

For the period 1 February 2006 to 30 November 2006
			SA Rands	US $
Total Income.			22,581.2	4,000.00
Grant Global Greengrants US$ 4000	22,493.43
Interest received	87.85
Less: Total Expenditure			22,286.0	3,947.71
Professional services. Social Work advocacy and facilitation	6,175.00
Accounting and handling fee	2,249.34
Airfares	4,519.00
Toll road fees	912.00
Motor vehicle Petrol and Oil	5,305.14
Accommodation	2830.61
Communication and stationary	295.00
Balance			295.19	52.29

Report produced by John GI Clarke, on behalf of the Sustaining the Wild Coast Association.Email johngic@iafrica.com, telephone +27 (0) 83 608 0944.

Download as PDF: Annual SWC report 2006.pdf

Posted on January 1st, 2007
Filed under: Annual Reports