{"id":234292,"date":"2022-08-16T20:26:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T18:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/mining-affected-communities-protest-outside-parliament\/"},"modified":"2022-08-16T20:26:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T18:26:36","slug":"mining-affected-communities-protest-outside-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/mining-affected-communities-protest-outside-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining affected communities protest outside Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Activists from communities affected by mining in Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces picketed outside Parliament on Tuesday. Photo: Vincent Lali<\/p>\n

Under the banner of Mining Affected Communities United, about 100 activists picketed, sang and toyi-toyied outside Parliament on Tuesday, while they waited for officials to receive their memorandum. But no official came.<\/p>\n

The protesters had come from Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces.<\/p>\n

They want the Department of Mineral Resources to see to it that mining communities are meaningfully consulted, and that prior and informed consent is received for mining operations, said Meshack Mbangula, national co-ordinator of Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA).<\/p>\n

In a press release, MACUA and Women Affected by Mining United in Action (WAMUA) said, \u201cIn 2020, MACUA and WAMUA delivered 50,000 signatures of affected community members to Parliament \u2026 Throughout 2021, we have sent email after email, memorandum after memorandum\u201d. But there has been no response from Parliament, the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMines must have continuous five-year plans to develop communities hosting them. The plans can include building clinics and schools,\u201d said Mbangula.<\/p>\n

Instead, he said, mining operations saw people \u201cforcefully removed\u201d and suffering disease caused by air pollution and water contamination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a permanent platform where we can continuously give reports to the Department of Mineral Resources about these problems and where we continuously hold mining companies accountable for mining related problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

MACUA general secretary Tokelo Mahlakoane said mining had stopped communities farming in Moroke Sekutlong and other areas in Limpopo.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore mining companies came, we used to farm and sell our veggies for a living, but we no longer do so because mining companies removed us from our land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe no longer use river water because it\u2019s contaminated. I buy water from borehole owners for about R600 monthly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahlokoane said they also wanted mining companies to employ an equal number of women.<\/p>\n

Members of the Alternative Information and Development Center, the Social Justice Coalition, Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement, the South African Federation of Trade Unions, Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education, and the Western Cape Pickers Forum also joined the protest.<\/p>\n

Mbangula said he had communicated with the chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee for mineral resources and energy, Sahlulele Luzipo, and they would meet on Friday to discuss MACUA\u2019s grievances and demands.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activists from communities affected by mining in Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North West provinces picketed outside Parliament on Tuesday. Photo: Vincent Lali Under the banner of Mining Affected Communities United, about 100 activists picketed, sang and toyi-toyied outside Parliament on Tuesday, while they waited for officials to receive their memorandum. But no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-234292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mining-affected-communities-protest-outside-parliament.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}