Xolobeni is a cluster of rural communities on the eastern coast of South Africa. Tourists know the beautiful and rugged area as the Wild Coast. The people of Xolobeni are mostly self-sufficient, living off the land and fishing in the sea, and often only travelling the two hours to the closest shops once a month to buy sugar, oil and other basic provisions.

Nokwakha Mboyisa is one of the members of the community who have written a protest postcard.



The Xolobeni community has been fighting against proposed titanium dune mining in the mineral-rich sand of the Wild Coast for nearly 20 years.

My parents fought for this land, for me to live freely. I will never agree to a mine coming here and destroying the land Vezokhwakhe Ndovela

In our religion the sea is very important. We use it to baptise and to heal Bonisile Elsie Sibiya

For more than a decade, Australia’s Mineral Commodities Limited has sought to scoop an area of dunes measuring 22km x 1.5km from Xolobeni’s coast, despite repeated rejection of mining by the community. The company now says it has divested from the Xolobeni mining project. However, community members have written postcards addressed to the company, and to South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources, expressing their opposition to any mining proposals.

If the mine is built the water from the estuary will be polluted, we will not be able to fish there any more Vezokhwakhe Ndovela

Clockwise from top: Vezokhwakhe Ndovela is concerned about the water quality in his community, Fakazile Joyce Ndovela about the produce they get from the land.



The people of Xolobeni say they stand to lose everything. Should mining proceed it will displace hundreds of people from their ancestral land, cut off their access to the sea, pollute surrounding villages, grazing lands and water sources, and destroy grassland, estuarine and marine ecosystems. They say it will necessitate the relocation of ancestral graves, severing the Amadiba people from their cultural roots.

Maize is our main source of food, we cannot survive without it. We have lived off the land for hundreds of years Phinkinkani Ndovela

Clockwise from top: Mashayina Mthwa, Phinkinkani Ndovela, Mashayina Mthwa’s handwritten postcard.

On 23 April the Amadiba Crisis Committee, represented by Richard Spoor Inc and the Legal Resource Centre, took the Department of Mineral Resources to court. They requested that the court rule that no licence to mine the area can be granted without the community’s consent. The court’s ruling is pending. On 3 August the moratorium was extended for two years by the minister of minerals and resources, Gwede Mantashe. The residents believe the application is likely to resume when the moratorium expires.

Postcards from Xolobeni is for sale, with all profits going back to the Xolobeni community. The book contains a selection of nine postcards, blank on the back, and these can be removed and posted in support of the community.