Pretoria - Women and young people are hardest hit by the catastrophic impact of mining on communities where operations are located.
An ActionAid South Africa study has revealed that women were completely sidelined by companies during negotiations for mining rights and other matters.
The NGO fights for the rights of communities across the country and has found in its commissioned study that the worst impact on communities was as a result of relocations, which transformed the way of life of those affected.
The family structure in such areas gets disrupted by divisions when the question of home ownership arises during a move to make space for mining.
Although the study was conducted in Mapela in Mokopane, Limpopo, it was found that the experiences there were similar to many others elsewhere in the country.
Some members of the Mapela community are unhappy with the presence of Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine.
“At the household level, women tend to be vulnerable to marginalisation during mining relocation. Customarily, married women had access to land rights through their husbands. Amplats channelled relocation compensation and other benefits to the male household heads since men are the main holders of land rights,” said the study.
“In cases where the husbands passed away, their widows would become recipients. However, when both parents passed away the surviving female children would not be eligible to receive direct compensation or the house registered under their names, unless there was no male sibling,” the study found.
Christopher Rutledge, the mining extractive co-ordinator at ActionAid South Africa, added that the issue of relocation had a broader effect on mining towns and often led to increased displacement.
“Young people find themselves living in shacks outside the comfort of their family homes. And, with women we found that because the negotiations were made with the man, no title deeds were allowed for the women and when the man dies the woman is homeless.This has marginalised both young people, women and some elderly people,” said Rutledge.
Mokopane resident and Movement Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) member Betty Laka shared similar sentiments, explaining they were not consulted before mining operations began.
“Women are mostly affected by mining because they are the ones responsible for their households. As the water is contaminated, they have to walk long distances to access clean and safe water. The women are also dependent on social grants now for survival. Before, they could make extra food from farming,” said Laka.
The study highlighted that relocation also affected farming and there were concerning levels of mining effects on the community.
“Villagers also raised concerns about loss of ploughing fields, loss of access to natural resources and the mine’s unfulfilled promises. They stressed the importance of this land as a source of food for corps, for grazing and livestock and for extracting firewood and other natural resources,” the study said.
Dr Matthew Chadwick, head of sustainability at Anglo American Platinum, said the mine was working on addressing the complaints.
“We welcome the report by ActionAid, we will go through it and consult with the community of Mapela (Mokopane) and we will consult internally. And we will address the points made in the report,” said Chadwick.
“We take concerns very seriously about the impact of our mining. We have complaints of dust and cracked houses in the area and we are working to try and resolve that issue now.”
PRETORIA NEWS