‘Travesty of justice' for community opposed to Australian-led mining project’ 21 September 2021

A South African court has found five men not guilty of an armed assault on people in a community resisting an Australian-led titanium mining project on the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast. The verdict, at the Mbizana District Court in the Eastern Cape on August 31, was denounced as a “travesty of justice” by the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), which unites communities on the Wild Coast against open-cast mining. The five men had been charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, pointing and shooting of firearms, and theft. The victims of the so-called “Christmas shootings” were a group of male residents of Mdatya village, who were attacked on a December evening in 2015 as they walked home from a ceremony. The attack was the culmination of a week-long campaign of intimidation, aimed at community members who had coordinated a blockade of the proposed mine site since April 2015. The blockade was successful in preventing access by consultants trying to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Xolobeni mineral sands project, which proposes to strip mine a 22-kilometre stretch of the coast.

…After the Christmas shootings verdict, the ACC — which stands for “real development of our community” and against imposed “development” — issued a statement saying: “This had been a five-and-a-half-year long process. There have been 15 court appearances. The defence lawyer managed to postpone the case again and again. It ended in a travesty of Justice. “We went to the court to get justice. But if justice is not being served, what is the point of going to the court.” The Xolobeni mining project is led by Australia’s Mineral Commodities Ltd (MRC) and its South African subsidiary, Transworld Energy and Minerals Resources (initially registered in 1993 in Britain as Barleyway PLC and 56% owned by MRC).

…Collectively, opponents recognise the triple environmental, social and economic threat that mining poses to area, which is highly biodiverse, has a rich cultural heritage and, crucially, provides the basis of subsistence livelihoods, as well as food, for the local population. Since organising in 2007, the ACC, the main opposition movement on the ground, has argued that the project will cause displacement from land and coastal areas, deplete local water supplies, and contaminate land and waterways, destroying the community and its sustainable way of life. Despite this sustained opposition, MRC continues to hold on to its stake in the project, even after pledging to divest its shares following Radebe’s assassination.