Mining in Mapela

The Mapela Case Study

The Mapela Traditional Community (Mapela) is a rural, low-income, mostly unemployed customary law community made up of 42 villages near to Mokopane in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. This series (videos, full case study and summary) portrays how the Mapela people have become increasingly vulnerable and insecure as a result of Anglo American Platinum increasing its mining operations at the Mogalakwena Platinum Mine.

Mining has resulted in:

• Settlement relocations
• Loss of land and agricultural resource rights
• Environmental damage
• Disruption of cultural practices
• A general disruption of the social fabric

In the new constitutional order, the land under the former Lebowa bantustan was transferred in trust to the Department of Land Affairs.

Since 2001, three villages have been relocated in Mapela to make way for the Mogalakwena mine. These relocations predominantly took place via a contested system of consultation. Anglo facilitated the establishment of 'Section 21 companies in each village to be relocated, which it then treated as the representative body of that village for the purposes of negotiations and consultations. These companies quickly lost all legitimacy in the community and even Anglo has subsequently admitted that it was mistaken in using the companies for consultation.

Individual consultations occurred with heads of households – the majority of whom are men. Heads of households also received compensation payments. Thus, women and youth were excluded from consultations and compensation.

While it seems that nobody has been forcibly evicted from land with established homesteads, residents report that aggressive means of effecting relocation were undertaken by Anglo, to coerce unwilling residents to move. This included fencing off of ploughing and grazing fields, restricting access to roads and throughways and conducting intrusive blasting operations. There are also allegations that water services were cut off for those households who refused to move. In total, around 1700 households have been relocated.

Grave relocations have also caused strife in the community. Between 2000 and 2012, Anglo relocated more than 2200 graves in Mapela. There are many grievances regarding the compensation awarded and the siting of the relocated graves. Anglo's award of R1500 per grave, was considered too little to adequately compensate for the strife that the grave relocations has caused families.

Mining activities cause severe environmental damage and create environmental hazards for surrounding communities. In Mapela, blasting has greatly affected the wellbeing of the community by disrupting school days and residents are often unable to sleep. It has also caused cracking of houses. Indeed, blasting was so bad in Ga-Puka that Anglo felt the need to pay residents of Ga-Puka village R300 to vacate their houses each time that blasting occurred, to avoid possible injury.

The negative effects of mining, and the flawed manner in which consultations have been carried out, have contributed to widespread anger that the Mapela community has not benefitted from mining. Villagers point to lack of local employment by Anglo and argue that traditional leaders have been corrupted and compromised by mining interests.

Protests have been organised by local groupings, such as the Mohlotlo Development Committee and the Mapela Executive Committee. These organisations have sprung up as alternatives to traditional and formal political representative bodies which are widely regarded as having failed to represent the interests of local communities.

In order to defend the rights and livelihoods of rural people in South Africa, we need clear protections for existing rights-holders, which enable them to choose what happens on their land. In cases where mining is approved, local people must derive lasting benefit from the mineral resources on their land.

It is clear that mining affected communities' legal position needs to be strengthened.