Mining-affected communities will on Monday embark on a march to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum and petitions to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
The communities, who are from across South Africa, are calling on the President to take steps to ensure the voice of mining-affected communities becomes central to mining-related legislation and that they are given an opportunity to agree or disagree with mining in their communities.
In a statement, the communities noted that the date of the march, October 12, was specifically chosen to coincide with the date that the Eastern Cape Xolobeni community is due to ask the Pretoria North High Court to dismiss Mantashe’s appeal against the November 2018 Baleni (Xolobeni) judgment.
The Baleni judgement affirmed that communities must provide their consent before mining takes place on their land in line with the principle of 'free prior and informed consent', the communities said.