Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe wants to declare a further two-year moratorium on mining applications for Xolobeni on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, where competing interests over a potential titanium mine have resulted in violence and death.
In the Government Gazette on Friday, Mantashe made known his intention to declare the moratorium, which will not only freeze progress on an existing mining application from Transworld Energy & Mineral Resources — an Australian company seeking to mine titanium along the Wild Coast — but will also block any new applications from being lodged.
Moratorium
The moratorium, Mantashe said in the notice, was in response to "the social and political climate at Xolobeni" and the "significant social disintegration and highly volatile nature of the current situation in the area".
Stakeholders were invited to submit their presentations on the moratorium to the Department of Mineral Resources in writing within 21 days.
The moratorium follows one issued by former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane in 2017, which will expire in December.
Interests
Competing interests over mining have created tensions in the area and several deaths. In 2016, Sikhosiphi "Bazooka" Rhadebe, an anti-mining activist and chair of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, was shot and killed.
Communities are concerned that mining for titanium in the sand dunes, which hold some of the heavy mineral’s largest deposits in the world, could displace them from their homes and grazing land.
Affected communities, represented by the Amadiba Crisis Committee, have taken the Department of Mineral Resources and the Department of Rural Development & Land Reform to court to block mining rights from being given to Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources. The matter was heard in the Pretoria High Court in April and judgment is presently awaited.
The Amadiba Crisis Committee’s spokeswoman, Nonhle Mbuthuma, said Mantashe’s announcement in the Government Gazette was "like a nightmare". She said Zwane had also cited conflict as the reason for the previous moratorium.
"Now Mantashe is saying the same thing. They must take a decision, or do they just want to see conflict continue on the ground?" Mbuthuma asked.
"At this time we are stuck, we have no direction, their indecision is affecting us on the development side."
Mbuthuma said the community had been excluded from a tourism initiative because of the ongoing tensions. She implored Mantashe to brief the affected communities directly, as they had little access to the internet and government publications.
Transworld Energy & Mineral Resources could not be reached at the time of publication.
Correction: August 6 2018
An earlier version of this article stated that both Transworld Energy & Mineral Resources and the department of mineral resources were unavailable for comment at the time of publication, rather than just Transworld Energy & Mineral Resources.
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