Sunday Tribune: June 24, 2007 Edition 1

by Erika Schutz

FRUSTRATED residents near the proposed Xolobeni Mineral Sands Project site in Pondoland have threatened to tear down weather monitoring equipment because they feel they have been kept in the dark about dune mining.

The 150 residents were angry when they found out a BEE company, Xolco had, in 2003, signed an agreement with mining company Transworld Energy Minerals (TEM) for a junior shareholding of 9% ostensibly to channel benefits to the community.

At a tribal authority meeting this week the crowd rose three times, shouting “amandla”. They also threatened to toyi-toyi down the hill to remove weather stations and poles erected as part of the environmental monitoring process.

TEM is the wholly owned South African subsidiary of Australian mining company Mineral Resources Limited (MRC).

By the end of the meeting, the residents from five affected villages had demanded a meeting with Mark Caruso, CEO of MRC, and his South African representative, John Barnes, who runs TEM, to clear up widespread confusion.

Residents said issues included a lack of consultation and public participation in the application process, and allegations that a front company had been illegally set up on behalf of those present.

Resident Scorpion Dimane, brandishing a copy of a statement by MRC, said, “The TEM brochure claims ’strong relationships have been developed with local community’. This is not true. The mining proposal has caused nothing but division and conflict.”

Suspicion was further fuelled by the erection of the weather stations without community consent. Resident Nonhle Mbuthuma said, “We were told that the dust monitors and weather station were a cellphone aerial . . . We can no longer trust our ward councillors to speak on our behalf, and Xolco directors were never elected or mandated by us to negotiate on mining,” she said.

Venture

At a public participation meeting the week before, it was revealed that Xolco, a BEE company set up by a few individuals, had in 2003 signed an agreement with TEM. The only Xolco directors were Max Boqwana (a Port Elizabeth-based attorney appointed by TEM to set up the structure) and Zamile “Madiba” Qunya.

TEM’s prospective senior BEE partner was Ehlobo Heavy Minerals, which former Department of Trade and Industry director general Alistair Ruiters and Rafiq Bagus (former adviser to Public Enterprises Minister, Alec Irwin) were establishing.

Ehlobo was poised to secure a 50.1% controlling interest in the venture. But negotiations ceased in February following allegations that TEM employees and agents were undermining eco-tourism initiatives to force the community into accepting mining as the only prospect for jobs and incomes.

TEM and Xolco directors Boqwana and Qunya responded by resigning as directors and simultaneously co-opting community members “living within and adjacent to the mining area” as Xolco directors. Nomangezi Malunga, an employee at the O R Tambo District Municipality in Umtata, was appointed chairman.

At the meeting, ANC ward councillors Mpendolu Jama and Ntethelelo Madikizela, MRC employee Basheen Qunya and his older brother, Zamile Qunya faced a barrage of criticism for failing to consult or fully inform the community of agreements made with the mining company on their behalf, and apparently indicating support for the proposal in municipal structures.

The tribal council defused the tense and heated situation by proposing that two residents, Basheen Qunya and Mavovo Ndovela, confront the environmental impact assessment consultants for GCS (Pty) Ltd and demand the weather stations be removed. They also had to report back to the community as to how the mining application was progressing.

It was clear that few present knew the status of the mining application or that a time frame of 30 days has been allocated for affected parties to submit comments, or that the environmental impact assessment was a legitimate process with 120 days allocated for it to be conducted.

Impact

When local ANC ward councillor Mpendulo Jama was asked to explain the mining application procedure, he declined, saying he did not know enough.

“Who brought the miners to Nkwanyama camp? My ancestors are buried on those hills. They died for this land and so we shouldn’t be mining over there,” said an angry Wiseman Dimane.

TEM has appointed social impact consultants Mazizi Masutu and Associates to conduct the community participation process. Ayanda Peters, a consultant working on the matter, said, “I am not surprised the meeting was tense. In May we had community meetings and there were problems then.”

The project, if it is approved, will see a 22km stretch of Wild Coast dunes mined for heavy mineral deposits.

Posted on June 24th, 2007
Filed under: Newspaper and Media