Johannesburg - A 64-year-old Limpopo pensioner, Margret Makgabo, has vowed to intensify the revolt against mining giant Ivanplats even in the face of death.
Last week, she was shot in the head by police using rubber bullets during a demonstration over the company’s mining activity in her village outside Mokopane.
Makgabo was among protesters who gathered in Ga-Magongoa village to demand that Ivanplats pay her more money for operating on the communal farm on which villagers ploughed mealies for subsistence.
She said the R5 250 “once-off” Ivanplats payment was not enough.
But the mine insists that it had made a R5 250 payment twice a year to all affected families during a four-year prospecting period.
“The police’s bullets will not discourage me. I am prepared to die fighting for what is due to me,” Makgabo said.
Bafana Mathe, 19, was also hit on the head by a rubber bullet.
The two were later treated in hospital for head injuries and discharged.
Protesters demonstrated over the mine’s Platreef project, against which they levelled a plethora of accusations.
Police responded by firing rubber bullets, injuring Makgabo and Mathe.
Provincial police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the demonstrators had gathered illegally.
“They threw stones at the police, and the police fired rubber bullets at them,” Mulaudzi said.
But demonstrators disputed the claims that they had pelted police with stones.
“Without even talking to us, police threw a teargas canister at us and started firing rubber bullets,” Hussein Kopole, one of the protest organisers, said.
Ivanplats is a subsidiary of Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian company.
It obtained a 30-year permit to mine platinum group metals from the Department of Mineral Resources on November 5.
The permit was granted despite persistent objections by unhappy communities, which argued that the mine operations were too close to graves. This was in contravention of laws regulating mining activity.
Ivanplats denies contravening the regulations.
“The company will be working closely with affected families and the South African Heritage Resources Agency, as prescribed by law, to ensure that any issues relating to graves are properly managed,” Ivanplats spokesman Jeremy Michaels said.
The community also rejected the 26 percent broad-based black economic empowerment transaction, which they said was not as rosy as it appeared on paper.
It was also angered after discovering that Ivanplats paid R30 000 monthly, behind their backs, to local chief Lesiba Kekana. The chief was paid for a four-year prospecting period, and negotiations are under way to pay him more money.
“Given that the mining right has just taken effect, Ivanplats will be negotiating a new surface-use and co-operation agreement with the relevant stakeholders in our host communities,” Michaels said.
Ivanplats and Kekana also sealed a deal that allowed the chief to lease Uitloop farm, which is owned by the mining company, at a R1 monthly rental.
Michaels said the chief was paid for facilitating meetings with communities. The lease agreement with the chief had already expired.
Kekana could not be reached for comment.
The Star