IF one subject has dominated the news headlines in recent months it is protests.
Often violent and definitely disruptive, when questions are asked, every protest is about either service delivery – or the lack thereof – or communities fighting against mining on their doorsteps.
The communities of the Fuleni area just south of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP) are the unfortunate ones who happen to live on coal-rich land.
Having successfully scared off Ibutho Coal and its prospective Fuleni mine in 2016, the communities were able to enjoy a short reprieve before having to once again start fighting.
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This time around it is Imvukuzane Resources applying for a prospecting licence to mine the area on the boundary of HiP’s world renowned wilderness area.
Constantly having to protect their livelihoods and land on which they were born and raised, members of communities such as Fuleni, living on prime mining land, have their entire lives disrupted for years at a time, in their fight against mining.
Where does this leave the children of such communities?
One would imagine their school lives are disrupted as their teachers and parents participate in the protests.
And should mining licences be awarded to the mining houses, these children’s lives are literally uprooted as they move house with their parents to make way for the mine.
And possibly a second time a few years later when the mine expands.
Their schools would possibly also have to be demolished if they fall on prime mining land, leaving the children either waiting months for a new school building to be built or have to be squashed into another school.
With all these disruptions, how are these children supposed to break the cycle of poverty in their lives?
Without a decent education, there is no future for these children, leaving them with no choice but to continue a rural existence at the mercy of traditional structures and mining houses.
Environmental and anti-mining groups continue their fight for the wilderness areas and communities, but the world needs coal and mines employ hundreds of people who may not otherwise have jobs.
Yet thousands of people could be displaced by one mine.
What is the alternative?
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