‘Battle to stop 22km long mine on Wild Coast’ 28 July 2021

"Without land, we are nothing." Bekeni Danca, 40, was born in Xolobeni village and fears that if the project of an Australian-based company to mine the mineral sands along the coast of her village goes ahead, she will lose everything. "We use the land where they want to build the mine," Danca says, referring to the indigenous forests along the Wild Coast. "There are guava and banana trees. We fish in the sea. Traditional healers find their muthi there. Sometimes I find plants there for my stomach or menstrual cramps. If they build that mine all that will be destroyed. "Her garden is big, with sweet potato, amadumbe, onion, maize, tomato, carrots, spinach and beetroot. She also has banana trees. "We build our houses here and most of us have cows that rely on this land for grazing." "This is all I know: waking up and going to the garden," says farmer Neliswa Mdukisa. She is 52 and was born in Xolobeni village. She was taught how to farm by her parents.

…In 2002, rare minerals were discovered on the Xolobeni coast. Mineral Sand Resources (MSR), a subsidiary of Australian company Mineral Commodities Ltd (MRC) applied to mine them. Over a lifetime of 22 years, the mine would extract 9 million tons of ilmenite, titanium-iron oxide, rutile, zircon, and leucoxene. Although mining rights were initially granted by the Department of Minerals and Energy in 2008, the decision was suspended after legal interventions by the Amadiba Crisis Committee and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC). The rights were revoked in 2011. But in March 2015, MRC filed another Mining Rights Application, through a subsidiary, Transworld Energy and Resources (TEM). In 2016, after violent incidents in the area, MRC announced the sale of its 56% share in the Xolobeni mining project. However, this does not seem to have taken place and in 2018 MRC told shareholders that the government supported the Xolobeni mining project, although this was disputed by the Department of Mineral Resources.

…But the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the 2007 mining rights application, conducted by Groundwater Consulting Services on behalf of MRC, found that the loss of farmland would not be compensated for by job-creation in the mine. "The potential direct employment opportunities for the local community are likely to be limited," the report said, because of the lack of required skills. In its environmental management plan (EMP) MRC said: "The community who will be most severely impacted by the proposed development are unlikely to benefit significantly from the permanent employment opportunities associated with the mine." Chairperson of Xholobeni Youth for Sustainable Development, Fanele Ndovela is concerned that the ACC has too much power in discussions at the Komkhulu (Great Place). "We have seen even white people participating there and this is really concerning. At this stage, that place no longer has the credibility it used to have. Back in the days, it was the place that was making pro-development decisions, [such as] to build the Xolobeni School."