Jonathan Watts: South African community wins court battle over mining rights
Environmental
activists in South
Africa have won a landmark legal victory after the high court ordered
the government to get prior community consent before granting mining rights. The judgment
represents a major victory for campaigners in Xolobeni, a community in
Pondoland, who have been involved in a protracted and sometimes violent
struggle against a proposed titanium mine.
Their lawyers told the
court that the department of mineral resources offered a mining concession to
the Australian company Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources without the
prior informed consent of local residents. The proposed
project aimed to generate annual revenues of £140m for the 25-year
life of the opencast pit, which would have produced zircon, rutile and titanium
for laptop computers, bicycles, golf clubs, watches and drill bits.
But local residents
said the clearance of the dunes would destroy their homes, their culture and
the ecology of the Wild Coast region. They formed the Amadiba Crisis Committee,
which staged protests and launched a legal challenge that led to Thursday’s
victory... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/south-african-community-wins-court-battle-over-mining-rights