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The Xolobeni Mineral Sands. Kwanyana Block. The stones and cobbles lying exposed are in fact artefacts left by Stone Age hominids dating back to the Sangoan Era, some 300,000 to 500,000 years ago.photo supplied

Ingi Salgado

The AmaDiba community, which won a presidential award for its community-run tourism operations, plans to relaunch the facilities after a decade of threatened titanium mining left them lying idle.

But in the last month, Zamokwakhe “Basheen” Qunya, the tourism officer of the Mbizana Municipality and a former representative of the mining company, has twice attempted to stop the new operators of Mtentu River Lodge from renovating the facility on behalf of the community-owned Accoda Trust.

Qunya is the younger brother of Zamile “Madiba” Qunya, leader of the ANC in Mbizana and co-founder with lawyer Max Boqwana of the Xolobeni Empowerment Company (Xolco), the black economic empowerment partner of the mining company Mineral Commodities (MRC).

The older brother was initially MRC’s point man for the Xolobeni project. By 2005 part of this responsibility devolved to Basheen, who was appointed community liaison officer for the mining licensee, MRC subsidiary Transworld Energy and Minerals (TEM). Basheen Qunya was also the manager of Amadiba Adventures, the now defunct flagship programme in an R80 million EU-funded eco-tourism project.

One of the perks of Basheen Qunya’s mining job was a 4x4 double-cab, replaced after the first was written off. According to Xolco’s lawyer Boqwana, the vehicle was meant to be shared by the community. However, off-road transport on the potted roads of the former Transkei confers mobility and influence, reflected in comments by Afika Lumbe, the Qunyas’ cousin.

“We played soccer with Basheen, there was no job he was doing. But then he got a new car. Those are amazing things.” Lumbe opposed mining in the area because of the competing needs of agriculture and believed the community was misinformed by mining proponents.

From 2004, several meetings were held in the area by Xolco, MRC and TEM as they prepared their mining licence application. The Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) alleges that individuals were hand-picked to attend. A group of leather-clad men known as the “Black Jackets” sprang up around the Qunyas. One source recalls a Black Jackets member complaining of always having to attend meetings, at which participants would rotate cooking duties and share in a generous allotment from MRC for catering costs.

The Black Jackets acted as security at the community-owned tourism camps of Amadiba Adventures. In this time, the tourism firm, registered under the name Smokey Mountain Trading, was run into the ground as managers raised prices, but failed to stock up on basics and spent the marketing budget. A source who helped set up the tourism facilities described it as “a strategy of starving people into mining”. During Basheen Qunya’s tenure, the business ran up outstanding taxes that amounted to R151 395 as of last year. According to Companies and Intellectual Property Commission records, Madiba Qunya is among two active directors of Smokey Mountain Trading.

The tourism operations, which until then had pulled in revenue of about R500 000 a year, ground to a halt as tension escalated around mining. The mining camp did not advertise meetings, shifting them from the komkulu, a weekly gathering to discuss issues affecting Amadiba coastal communities via traditional leadership structures.

MRC’s response was that it was operating “strictly within the law” and that its subsidiary TEM continued “to be actively engaged with the community and interested and affected parties”. But many in the community remain convinced there was more behind the hospitalisations and deaths of several anti-mining leaders. MRC managing director Mark Caruso dismissed these allegations against Xolco as fabrications by green lobbyists. “If provided with evidence that criminal acts were carried out on behalf of MRC, it would be regarded in a serious light and passed on to the authorities to investigate,” he was quoted as saying.

Community activists were meanwhile holding meetings with small pockets of people late at night, hooking up car batteries to a laptop to disburse information. One participant recalled at least 10 minutes of chaos at a meeting when community members, shown MRC’s website, heard for the first time they were the supposed beneficiaries of the Xolco deal.

In the glare of media reports at the end of 2006, Zamile Qunya and Boqwana resigned as Xolco directors and a new board was elected, which included Qunya’s neighbour, Mavis Denge, and his brother Basheen. The Human Rights Commission was asked to investigate. The community’s initial support for mining had by this time eroded. By the time the last local government elections were held in May 2011, residents elected no ward councillors who proactively supported mining.

After MRC wound up its involvement at Xolobeni, Basheen Qunya was appointed tourism officer for the Mbizana municipality in the Alfred Nzo district municipality. In the last month, he twice visited the Mtentu River Lodge, warning the new operators to stop their work.

The community-owned Accoda Trust signed the deal to relaunch tourism operations after the Xolobeni mining licence was revoked. The lodge lay vandalised and unused amid the mining conflict.

The three South Africans who have taken on its renovation, Russel Hartshorne, Bridgette Duffey and Andrew Werner, acknowledged theirs was a high-risk venture because of simmering community tensions, but they argued they were young and had less to lose if the business went belly up.

Hartshorne, a regular visitor to the area, brought the first large group of visitors back to the nearby Mtentu overnight camp last December since ecotourism operations sank. The community then asked him if he was interested in operating the nearby lodge. He and his partners were given the nod after a seven-hour meeting at the weekly community komkulu. They have invested R120 000 so far and plan to build up their investment in time with deep links into the Amadiba community. They are under no illusions that it will be a long process.

“For someone who is supposed to be developing tourism in the area, Basheen’s cutting us at every turn,” said Duffey. Qunya objected to new toilets at the lodge as no environmental impact assessment had been done and warned that the police and departmental officials were on the way. Neither outcome occurred. Qunya also rebuffed their offer to monitor the river mouth for illegal fishing, she alleged.

On the day the deal was to be signed, I met Basheen Qunya driving with his family in the 4x4 funded by MRC. Qunya was irritated, perhaps because our stationary car was blocking his access out of the area, but his expression darkened further when I told him I was a journalist.

He responded to my questions in barks. He objected to the Mtentu deal because neither the municipality nor communities were involved, Qunya claimed.

I asked who should benefit if not the community via the Accoda Trust. Qunya put his foot on the accelerator, his words tapering as he sped off: the newly-established Xolobeni Development Trust. At the Mtentu signing ceremony, members of the Accoda Trust, traditional leadership representatives, elected ward councillors and community leaders had not heard of Basheen Qunya’s trust. They planned to approach the municipality to complain about his actions.