Farming communities in KZN being evicted for mining

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Durban - Families in KwaZulu-Natal farming communities were facing eviction from land due to increasing mining activity in the province, advocacy groups said. Their plight has seen lawyers volunteering their services, because, they say the families’ rights have been undermined, while an international organisation says that the matter would have been resolved in the families’ favour had they known about their rights. In one incident, a family of 17 have been living in squalor since their home on Kliprand farm in Dannhauser near Newcastle was demolished by Ikwezi Mining in March. Elizabeth Hadebe, 55, the family elder, said a lack of information about the law contributed to their plight. She said the farm had been her home since 1978 when her father worked for the owner, identified as Nicky “Magayimbuzi” Swart.

They were labour tenants.

“We were happy here until Magayimbuzi left in 1991. Our nightmare began in 2012 when a man told us that coal mining was planned on the farm, that we were to be relocated. Our homes were later demolished,” Hadebe said.

She said most of the evicted family members had been born on the farm and that their relatives had been buried on the land.

On November 20, 2017 the mine company obtained an eviction order. Six families were affected. Three agreed to be moved to houses built by the mine in 2016, while the other three families, including the Hadebes, refused.

When their houses were demolished in March this year, the three families turned to friends for accommodation.

“Those houses were substandard, and our livestock and fields were not taken into consideration; that’s why we resisted. No public consultation was done and when mining started, none of the family members got employment. “My children and some grandchildren are school pupils and look at our living conditions because of that mining company. We have lost everything including the proper family home,” she said.

When the Daily News visited the area last week, Hadebe was leaning against the wall of a rundown structure about 100m from where her home used to stand before it was demolished.

Robby Mokgalaka, lawyer and coal campaign manager for environmental justice group groundWork, said the family’s rights and dignity were undermined.

“Circumstantial evidence proves that the families qualify as labour tenants and thus they enjoy the protection from the Labour Tenants Act. We got involved in the matter when the mine threatened to forcefully relocate the community from properly built houses to rhino steel structures.”

He said the court ruled that the mine should build them proper houses before relocating them. Their plight has seen lawyers volunteering to assist them, leading to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) suspending operations at the mine for transgressing certain environmental regulations.

“In terms of sections 3 and 8 of the Extension of Security Tenure Act 1997 (ESTA), the Kliprand community have the right to consent to the relocation proposed by the Ikwezi mine. The right of the community to occupy the land may be terminated on any lawful ground provided that such termination is just and equitable,” said Mokgalaka.

In this case, he said, the mine relocated the community without any consultation.

“As a result the mine’s conduct amounts to contravention of the provisions of the above sections of the ESTA,” he explained.

He said this kind of behaviour was “very common” with coal mines around the country, and other families in different areas around the province were facing a similar fate.

Thembinkosi Dlamini, Oxfam activist, said the matter would have been resolved in the families’ favour had they known about their rights.

Jo-Marie Momberg, Ikwezi Legal and Compliance Manager, said Ikwezi Mining purchased the farm from BHP Billiton in September 2012.

“A consultative process was initiated by the affected community where six families were identified to be directly affected by the mining activities, but only three had relocated in accordance with the relocation agreements between the parties. The recruitment process for employment was under way until it was interrupted by the suspension of operations on June 5,” Momberg said.

She said the DMR gave the order for the suspension.

Ayanda Shezi, DMR spokesperson, had not commented by the time of publication.

Daily News