KwaMyeki, KwaZulu-Natal – Today, World Environment Day, members of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO) are conducting a peaceful and lawful protest against Petmin and Tendele’s Somkhele mine near Mtubatuba. The protest aims to raise awareness about the Constitutional Right to live in an environment that is not harmful to a person’s health or well-being.
Mining-affected communities in South Africa and around the world often suffer from physical and emotional abuse inflicted by mines, and Tendele mine is no exception. Activists have been attacked, murdered, and threatened, leaving the community in an atmosphere of fear. The Tendele coal mine moved its machines into the eMalahleni area of the KwaMyeki community and started relocating people from Ophondweni, eMahujini, and eMalahleni in early May to make way for the mine while simultaneously conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and consultation process in the same communities.
The protest will take place in the Mpukunyoni community surrounding the mine and at Petmin’s Head Office in Bryanston, where a memorandum will be delivered.
Despite receiving intimidatory letters from Traditional Leaders and Tendele warning MCEJO to call off the protest, the organization remains committed to exercising its right to protest and will proceed as planned despite threats of harm. The South African Police Service (SAPS) has been requested to be in attendance to protect the community members participating in the protest.
MCEJO extends its gratitude to MACUA, ActionAid, groundWork, SAHRDN, GET, Mary de Haas, and their lawyers, All Rise, for their support.
Photos: https://adobe.ly/2obBPB9
Psychological Report: https://drive.google.com/file/
Memorandum : see below
For more information, please contact:
Israel Nkosi (MCEJO): 076 781 2193
Dumisane Ntombela (MCEJO): 076 6777 4150
*Please note that these contact details are not for circulation to ensure the safety of the individuals involved.
Somkhele coal mine protest
Memorandum for Tendele coal mine to stop mining until completing EIA process
Date : 05 June 2024
Venue: KwaMyeki area of Mpukunyoni, Mtubatuba.
To : Tendele Coal Mining (Pty) Ltd
Tendele has moved its mining machines into the eMalahleni area of KwaMyeki community, and started relocating people of eMalahleni and Ophondweni to make way for more coal mining, while it is still busy with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the same communities. By law the mine is required to consult with the community and get their informed consent before mining.
We are also aware that the mine is inciting violence in the communities as it promised to pay the balance of the compensation for relocating on condition that all the remaining families agree to relocate. As a result of this, people are experiencing threats in the form of gunshots in their homes and intimidation from unknown callers. A family in Ophondweni was attacked with 19 bullets in 2020 for refusal to relocate and several other houses have also been shot at since, including three incidents in the past 2 months.
The environmental consultants for the mine sent 8500 pages of the draft EIA report including very technical studies in English only for the community to comment on. They expect the community to comment within 30 days while the documents are also incomplete as they are missing important reports, including the Social and Labour Plan (SLP), the Relocation Action Plan and the Biodiversity Offset Plan. The mine is being unreasonable by compiling a 8500-page document and expect the illiterate members of the community to read, understand and comment within 30 days.
In light of the above, we are making the following demands:
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Removal of mining machines in eMalahleni.
We demand that the mine remove the construction and mining machines from eMalahleni within seven (7) days until the EIA process is completed. The machines are operating throughout the day and night and are causing dust and noise to the residents.
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Relocation process.
The relocation of people without proper consultation and planning is a violation of their Constitutional land and environmental rights. The process of relocation includes relocating graves which is sensitive and causes extreme trauma to the families. The mine must use experts, provide counselling, and also observe specific traditional procedures according to families. The costs for traditional processes must be carried by the mine. We are demanding that the mine immediately stop relocating people from eMalahleni and Ophondweni areas until proper consultation and planning have been done to ensure that full and fair compensations are made and that people will not be worse off than before, if not better off.
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Inciting of violence.
The mine promised to pay the balance of compensation for relocation to certain families after all the other families have agreed to relocate. The mine’s approach has resulted in violence with the three communities, such that Mam Fikile was killed as one of the leaders of MCEJO. Many families are still receiving threats for their reluctance to relocate and families continue to be shot at.
We want the mine to stop causing this type of conflict in the community which places people’s lives at risk. We demand that the mine pays the balance to the families that it has relocated without placing these conditions that put people’s lives in danger.
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Stop mining and comply with the law
We demand the following in terms of the EIA process, consultation and compensation:
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We demand that you provide our lawyers (All Rise) all the necessary documents and information they request from you because they represent us as MCEJO.
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We want the mine to engage with us directly not via the traditional council or the municipal representative.
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No mining must commence while there are still dwellings in the same areas targeted for mining.
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We also want the SLP to be supplied to everyone, not to keep it as a secret from others.
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We also need to see the relocation plans, including the Dladla family and we want to be part of the relocation planning process. We do not agree with the 500m buffer as this only deals with blasting and not all other impacts.
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We demand the mine to use the local vernacular to explain all the technical information in the EIA documents.
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The mine must provide a written plan for how the mine is going to restore what we are about to lose, such as grazing land, arable land, our forest, family plots, streams, community dams, dipping tanks, community footpaths and roads.
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We demand that the mine properly identify the impacts on our schools and children so that they can walk to school safely and can concentrate when they are in class.
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We demand that you fulfil all the promises you have made in community meetings.
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We demand the mine to follow and practice the right ways of health safer environment that is not harmful to us, that includes dust to our homesteads and water not to be contaminated by the coal dust.
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We demand that the mine conduct a site visit in the existing mining areas so that MCEJO and its lawyers can check what rehabilitation has been done.
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The mine must fulfil the promises that it has made in the existing mining areas.
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All the people who were affected by the existing mining operations must be compensated before expanding to new mining areas.
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The period of 30 days that you gave to us to respond in the EIA draft of about 8500 pages is not sufficient. We demand an extension of 30 more days and discussions with the experts so we can properly understand the reports.
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The 3-hour meetings planned for the community, including MCEJO members, are not enough for the consultants to properly explain the findings of the experts, including how Tendele proposes to deal with the impacts caused by the mining operations so that we have a full understanding and be able to participate meaningfully in the decisions made about us and our land.
We expect the mine to respect our demands and respond within seven (7) working days – 17 June 2024.
Signatures
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Tendele coal mine representative.
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Authorized convenor