Welcome to the MCEJO website launch today, 1 December 2023.
This is an important day for the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation. Our voices have been shared across South Africa and beyond by other NGOs, and in many meetings and on various platforms but, from today, messages and stories will come directly from our members. The work of MCEJO is very challenging but rewarding. We look forward to sharing our inspiring journey and stories with you.
MCJEO has come a long way since Billy Mnqondo and I formed the organisation in 2015 to bring together people concerned about protecting the environment after witnessing the destruction caused by Tendele coal mine in neighbouring Somkhele, Mpukunyoni, across the Mfolozi river. We are rural farming communities and we understand the value of our land, which is our source of life that no money can buy.
A story that I would like to share with the whole world about MCEJO’s courageous activists dates back to 2014, almost 10 years ago, when Ibutho Coal applied to mine our lovely Fuleni reserve, the home of our ancestors and current and future generations.
Wherever I go to do a presentation to the public and whoever I address about MCEJO, the words that keep whispering in my ears are those of the great Baba MaGubane. It was when he asked iButho Coal’s environmental consultants which part of the word “NO” they did not understand so that he could assist them to understand what we meant when we said: “NO! we do not want to listen to any of your stories.” NO is still our response to any mining company that attempts to mine in the Fuleni reserve.
We are blessed to be sited right next to Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park, the famous home of the Big Five in KZN province, South Africa. It is the oldest game reserve in the world and was established in 1895 as a sanctuary to protect White Rhino that were on the brink of extinction. Fuleni is also where King Shaka spent his boyhood with his mother, Queen Nandi, and his sister. It holds special historic and cultural significance for the Zulu people. This is our heritage. We are committed to passing this legacy on to our children and our grandchildren and to their children…..
Phila Ndimande
Co-founder of MCEJO