MOKOPANE – After two weeks of violent protests by residents of more than five villages in the Mapela area against Anglo American’s Mogalakwena mine, peace has been restored.
The protestors were voicing their demands such as unemployment, their dissatisfaction with the poor infrastructure in their villages and the relocation of learners from Seritaria High School to Phaladingwe Technical School.
This two-week protest resulted in damage to the roads, numerous properties being burnt down, vehicles were set alight and learners were unable to attend school.
According to a statement by Anglo American it has also impacted operations in the mine.
The mine has been operating in a scaled down manner resulting in a total production loss of 8 600 ounces of platinum.
The minister of the department of mineral resources, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, paid a visit last Wednesday to the Mogalakwena municipality in an attempt to address the situation.
“Through the intervention facilitated by Ramatlhodi, the company, community of Mapela and other key stakeholders have agreed on a roadmap to resolve the dispute,” read the statement.
The roadmap identifies a number of actions, including:
• The immediate creation of a task team by the Mogalakwena Municipality and composed of representatives from all villages to draw up and agree on terms of reference for engagement.
The task team will revisit agreements entered into between the company and the relocated villages and agree on any outstanding action and implementation.
• The Department of Education will make the necessary arrangements to ensure that the Seritarita High School is re-opened from Monday,(14 September).
Transportation of the learners to and from school and other logistical support will be provided by Anglo American Platinum in support of the school and Department of Education.
•Blasting schedules close to Seritarita High School will be discussed and agreed upon between the community leaders of Leruleng and Skeeming communities and should not interfere with the learning process.
The South African Human Rights Commission will continue to engage the representatives of the villages that were not represented at the DMR-facilitated engagement to ensure they are part of the task team and that the task team meetings proceed as contemplated.
Anglo American has agreed to waive the ‘no-work no-pay’ principle towards the employees who were unable to report to work due to the community protests.
“This is a once-off, good faith gesture and does not set precedent for future conduct,” Anglo stated in their statement.
“The company is committed to continue to support further development plans in the communities surrounding Mogalakwena mine in the areas of education, health, enterprise and infrastructure development,” Mpumi Sithole, media manager at Anglo American strongly concluded.
“It has been noted that not all Mapela community representatives were present during the crafting of the road map however, it has been agreed that those communities not represented will be allowed to participate in the task team set up by Ramathlodi,” stated the Department of Mineral Resources.
Ramathlodi has urged the platinum-rich communities and the mine to work together to ensure the agreed road map is implemented effectively for peace and stability.
According to a media statement issued by the Mogalakwena Residents Association (MRA), the community was not happy with Ramatlhodi’s intervention as they felt that he did not address the community and they arranged another meeting between the MRA, community representatives and the Mogalakwena mine to address the issues last Friday.
The statement on Friday afternoon after their meeting read: “the meeting welded positive results, the mining house committed itself to employ 60 local employees as the first group of local based employment and they made a commitment to develop the infrastructure of the surrounding villages.
“As the MRA, we welcome the decision and we wish to inform the public that the mass-action is now on hold”.
Phakane Mabe, community leader, told Bosveld on Monday afternoon: “This is a step in the right direction, we will monitor the progress of the negotiations and if the mine does not uphold to their promises, we will take action again”.
