During the Bench Marks Foundation’s annual meeting, which was held in Johannesburg last month, panellists argued that the ownership patterns within mines were still reserved for privileged groups, rather than the poor communities in which mines operated.

They also averred that mining communities had “never been empowered” and had suffered because multinational companies had exploited their land.

“Mineral resources belong to South Africa, not the multinationals that mine them,” said KIO Advisory Services founder Duma Gqubule.

He urged that South Africa should take full value from the country’s natural endowment and highlighted that the window of opportunity was shrinking, as the value of local mining assets had decreased from R1-trillion in 2010 to about R300-million currently.

Legal services provider Legal Resources Centre senior attorney Henk Smith explained that government aimed to address shared ownership at mines by regulating social licences to mine through social and labour plans (SLP) and black economic empowerment. However, he noted that these policies had not been helpful, as they did not address rural development or legacy issues pertaining to mining operations.

“A generation is going to die because of the way mining was done in the country and continues to be done,” he warned.

South African activist and human rights attorney Richard Spoor noted that communities impacted on by mining were angry with mines and government authorities who had failed to protect them, as well as their cultures and environments.

He added that South Africans had not “benefited at all” from mining and that the country was probably not richer because of mining’s impact on the land and the costs to human lives.

The historic effects of mining were clearly evident in the country, as operations had largely been conducted in the country’s most impoverished areas, Spoor said.

Issues concerning human rights were also raised during the discussion, with panellists admonishing government and mining companies for turning a blind eye to violations where communities were not properly consulted before mining operations had started.

Bench Marks Foundation executive director John Capel pointed out that Section 31(1) of the Constitution provided protection for communities, their cultural and religious practices, as well as their languages; however, mining operations had forced communities to relocate, resulting in the destruction of “all that is sacred to a community”.

“The Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act and SLP do not take into account the cultural heritage issues,” he said, adding that the use of local tribesmen as a representative of whole communities undermined democracy. This underlined a concern of other delegates, who stated that mining companies were using tribal leaders, who did not represent the whole community, to accelerate approval processes to start operations.

“It is important that the South African Heritage Resources Agency, the South African Human Rights Commission and the Department of Mineral Resources work with communities to ensure that their rights are taken into account,” Capel asserted.