The Herald Online **News**

By Guy Rogers Environment & Tourism Editor

SENIOR sangomas in the heartland of a proposed mining precinct in coastal Pondoland are opposed to the project, Mtentu sangoma Jabulani Mboyisa said yesterday.

Mboyisa confirmed this position in an interview from Mbizana, following on an announcement by Pondoland communities that they had sent petitions to three government departments stating their objection to the mining.

“Our ancestors do not allow the destruction of our landscape.

“I was born with these people, but my ancestors are the ones who came in the millions of years before me. They say that our environment and culture will be lost if the mining goes ahead.

“Instead of mining, we are interested in eco-tourism,” said Mboyisa.

Mboyisa said the Sigidi community, who live north-east of the Mtentu estuary, further into the mining zone, felt the same way as the Mtentu community, inclusive of headmen, chiefs and ordinary families.

There were about 300 sangomas operating in the two communities and they all felt the same way about the mining project, “especially the older ones”, he said.

Communicating through the Sustaining the Wild Coast public participation coalition, communities announced earlier this week that they had sent a petition to the Eastern Cape public enterprises and economic affairs environment and tourism departments and to the national minerals and energy department.

The petition “vetos mining . . . and expresses a preference for development that will benefit community interests and allow for the conservation of the local environment.

“Tourism and sustainable farming should instead be developed . . . We support the idea of a nature reserve as long as we are consulted and not displaced.”

Mboyisa said he had heard nothing about the first of the public participation meetings staged on Wednesday in Mbizana and Xolobeni by Johannesburg environmental consultant GCS and Port Elizabeth public participation consultant Mazizi Msuthu.

The mining right application was lodged on March 28 by Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources, the South African subsidiary of Australian company Mineral Resource Commodities. Confirming this in mid-April, the department‘s regional director, Novuyo Ketse, said a decision on the project would take at least a year.

The developer is targeting mainly ilmenite but also rutile, zircon and leucoxene to add to the value of the deposit. Ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene are used for the paint pigment industries and zircon is used in specialty glass production.

GCS said the developers intended to build a smelter, but this would be considered if the mining right was granted.

Posted on May 21st, 2007
Filed under: Newspaper and Media