Communities prepared to challenge Minerals and Restitution Bills in court - Southen Africa | Land Portal

By Lesego Loate on 11 Jun 2014

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Rural Limpopo communities are prepared to take legal action against the government to prevent the MPRDA and Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bills from becoming law. Limpopo’s rural communities are concerned that the new Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development (MPRDA) Amendment Bill lacks safeguards for rural communities to protect their land tenure and land use practices which have been and might further be undermined by mining operations.

At a community engagement in Elim, Limpopo Province on 2-3 May 2014 hosted by the Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), in collaboration with the Foundation for Human Rights (as funders), community members were briefed on developments on the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development (MPRDA) Amendment BillRestitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill and Traditional Affairs Bill. The MPDRA and Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bills are currently awaiting the president’s signature, which will make them law. LAMOSA, the Centre for Law and Society (CLS)Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) have sent a letter to the president stating that the process of public consultation for the two bills was inadequate and did not give people sufficient time to engage with these bills.

Many of the rural women participating in the meeting felt their voices are being silenced even though as a group they are the most active communal agricultural land users. They felt that they stood to lose a lot should the MPRDA Amendment Bill be signed into law. Moreover, participants voiced concerns about the failures of land reform regarding the strengthening of tenure security for communal land being indirectly exploited through the MPRDA Amendment Bill.

There was also uneasiness with the role of traditional authorities as it seems, through the MPRDA Amendment Bill, traditional authorities — not mining-affected communities — are being positioned to benefit from mining. Community participants said they want to be involved from the prospecting stage of mining and they want to be involved in decision-making. Concerns were raised that the mining industry targets decision-makers leading to corruption, decisions being made that affect communities without giving them any say, and driving rights allocation in a non-transparent manner (to the benefit of mining capital interests).

Participants highlighted that mining puts stress on other natural resources such as water and that water licensing needs to be implemented properly rather than government tolerating mines using water illegally to the detriment of communities’ domestic and productive water needs. Socio-economic needs also need to be factored into decision-making regarding the allocation of mining rights, participants argued.

Community participants also felt that they had not been afforded proper space to voice their concerns about both bills, as officials had blocked those who were critical insisting that public consultations were only for ‘constructive inputs’ instead of people’s challenges with the bills. Community members complained that in some public consultation meetings they found they were being cut off by officials when they were raising their challenges with the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill and those afforded an opportunity to speak fully were those that supported the bill.

The venues chosen for the consultative meetings were remote and people struggled to access the venues and invitations were not communicated in an accessible way for those who do not have internet access. 

Given the public consultation challenges outlined by community members they said should the president sign the bill then they were ready to take the government to court.

- See more at: http://www.plaas.org.za/blog/communities-prepared-challenge-minerals-and...

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