Xolobeni — PICTURE: DAILY DISPATCH
On June 6 1960, the Pondo people paid with their blood on Ngquza Hill for rejecting an aggressive attempt to carve up their land and create Transkei independence. They are at it again, 56 years later, fighting to fend off another hostile attempt to take their land. The land seems fertile, rich in minerals. Pristine rivers flow into the Indian Ocean. Adults work in the hot sun, tending their green fields of maize, amadumbe (a kind of potato) and beans, surrounded by the lush greenery and the ocean to the east. On weekends, barefoot girls in tattered clothes, play games that have been played by generations, using old stockings and tins, while boys fashion a soccer ball out of anything that’s soft and won’t hurt their bare feet.
Other than their carefree laughter, the peace is punctuated only by the sound of waterfalls and of waves crashing against rocks, sending up spray.
But this peace lasts only during the day. On many a night the people of Xolobeni, Kwanyana, Mnyameni and Mdatya in the Bizana district have resorted to sleeping outside their huts. When they expect to be raided by the police and their opponents, they sleep in the forests. These forests are home to the rare butterflies that lovers of nature cite as a reason why the mining of titanium should not be allowed here.
While many of the locals also care about the plants and creatures unique to the area, they care much more about something even more sacred: agricultural and grazing land.
The proponents of mining speak of the dearth of jobs and infrastructure in their justification for wanting to violate the windswept sand dunes along the Sikombe and Mtentu rivers. Since 2004, when Australia’s Mineral Resources Commodities first applied for a licence to mine the dunes, this side has pointed to the black stripes on the beach sand as evidence of the riches that lie unexploited. They argue the mine would bring about much-needed jobs to lift the locals out of poverty.
But the opponents of mining — the majority of people in the villages directly affected by the proposed mine — point to their well-fed livestock, green fields growing their food and favourite smoke, and the nearby tourism businesses as the most sustainable ways to keep hunger away.
Many of their rondavels have been turned into backpacker guest houses. Villagers say this is the best empowerment opportunity. The Mtentu Lodge next to the Mkambati nature reserve is built with the community’s partnership and for its benefit. Villagers fear mining would kill tourism for little or no benefit.
At the nearby Mzamba river mouth, sections of the same community were forced to give up tracts of land to Sol Kerzner’s Wild Coast Sun in the 1980s. The people of Xolobeni give the lack of compensation, and what they say is non-fulfilment of job promises at the resort, as their other reason for preferring their agricultural way of life.
Those keen on mining the marine protected area come from the villages further inland. Their lands will not be directly affected by mining.
During the past six months there have been outbursts of violence; three people have been killed. Many more suffered beatings and machete wounds in February, when rumour was rife the mining company would move in with heavy equipment.
For the past 12 years the community has been in and out of court, fighting the licence approvals granted by the departments of mineral resources and environmental affairs. These permits have been approved and then rescinded so many times that nobody knows exactly where the process is now.
The community, organised under the Amadiba Crisis Committee, organised itself in early March to block off the only route into the village when yet another rumour of the imminent arrival of their unwanted guests started flying. Another amaMpondo massacre may be brewing if the matter is not handled with care.
This article first appeared in the Financial Mail
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