Ongoing mining-related protests concerning
Nkosana Zali, spokesperson for Mogale City Local Municipality says that calm needs to be brought back to Kagiso.
Amidst R850 000 worth of fire damage to new wastebins that occurred when protestors hurled a petrol bomb at Mogale City Local Municipality stores on Sunday 12 January, a call is made for calm to return to Kagiso.
On Monday morning 13 January a small group of protestors again took to the streets because of unhappiness with the outcome of the public meeting with Minister of Mineral Resources, Susan Shabangu on Friday 10 January. They barricaded roads leading to the Chamdor Industrial Park.
Nkosana Zali, spokesperson for Mogale Citly Local Municipality says that the stalemate is based on the insistence by a section of the protesting community members to have the mine shut down, whereas the Minister indicated that there was no legislation she could rely on to shut down this mine.
“We say a section of the protestors because the most prominent are those who want the mine to close down whilst there is an equal number of protestors who want to extract economic benefits from the mining operation for themselves. They demand to see Mintails’ Social Labour Plan and Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to ascertain whether these accord with the Mining Charter,” says Zali.
“This means that the community is divided on this matter.”
He says that the municipality feels certain that the process instituted by Minister Shabangu will help them to arrive at the outcomes everyone seeks and it therefore demands of all to be patient.
“We will not compromise ensuring that the structural integrity of our peoples’ homes remains intact and neither will we open the Mogale City jurisdiction to irresponsible business practices – even mining – in the name of job creation for our community.”
Zali says their attempts at finding lasting solutions to the mining-related protests are thwarted by the blatant hijacking of the situation by criminal elements.
“We urge our communities neither to open space for hooligans to vandalise public property, rob delivery vans of goods nor allow the destruction that accompanies these protests.”
He says the act of hurling a petrol bomb at the Kagiso Extension 1 Ward Office and the burning down of 2 300 of their 240-litre dustbins at the Chamdor Municipal Stores mean that service delivery will be hindered and a large number of people inconvenienced.
“On this score, we urge our law-enforcement agencies to do the necessary to bring the perpetrators to book.
“We remain confident that a solution is in touching distance and all we need to do is give Minister Shabangu’s process of investigating the issues through the independent technical experts she has appointed a chance.”
