Chaos, teargas and handcuffs at Xolobeni mining meeting
The ACC suggests that the meeting was nothing but propaganda pushed by ANC leaders to ensure they could give a platform to their list of speakers who were in favour of the Xolobeni mining project.
Civil groups and Amnesty International South Africa (AISA) have called for a probe into the “excessive force” reportedly used during a peaceful anti-mining protest during a meeting in the Xolobeni area last Sunday.
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Members of the South African Police Services allegedly used teargas and stun grenades to disperse protesters at the meeting, resulting in some ACC members being hospitalised.
Prominent human rights lawyer, Richard Spoor, was also arrested.
Mr Spoor appeared in the Mbizana Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday this week facing several charges, including common assault, disobeying a lawful instruction from a police officer and inciting public violence.
NPA regional spokesman Luxolo Tyali said no evidence was led and the case was postponed to October 25 for further investigation.
Mr Spoor was released on warning.
The meeting had been called by mineral resources minister, Gwede Mantashe, to discuss the ongoing Xolobeni mining project dispute.
However, non-community members were apparently bused in to join the meeting, and the list of speakers is said to have comprised only pro-mining activists.
This had reportedly created frustration among anti-mining groups, which would be directly affected by the mining should it go ahead and who felt unfairly treated, with a statement from the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) saying their voices had been “shut out”,
AISA slammed the arrest and events that unfolded in the meeting as seen in video clips.
These clips show Mr Spoor and Mr Mantashe in a heated engagement in which the minister accuses Mr Spoor of disrupting his meeting‚ while Mr Spoor replies “I am trying to help you.”
The ACC suggests that the meeting was nothing but propaganda pushed by ANC leaders to ensure they could give a platform to their list of speakers who were in favour of the Xolobeni mining project.
Mr Spoor said in a statement that members of the Xolobeni community‚ who stood to be evicted from their land should the Australian-led mining project be given the green light‚ had not been allowed into the marquee where the meeting was held until all available seats had been taken by ANC supporters and the pro-mining groups bused in from outside the community.
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When members of the ACC were finally allowed in, they were reportedly confined to a small corner of the tent.
No one representing the affected community, they said, was allowed on the podium.
Executive director of AISA, Shenilla Mohamed, said the meeting had been called specifically to hear the community’s views on the proposed mine.
“The fact that those opposed to the mine were prevented from joining in harmed their right to participation in public affairs as well as their right to defend their ancestral lands threatened by the mining project,” Ms Mohamed said
A spokesman from the minister’s office disagreed, and described Sunday’s meeting as “very positive”.
The spokesman said all parties, including the ACC, had been granted an opportunity to express their views.
“It’s quite sad that a small group of people were instigated to disrupt and suppress discussions‚ but the meeting proceeded as planned.”
Her Majesty Lombekiso Sigcau of the AmaMpondo Royal Family has also expressed her unhappiness over the charges against Mr Spoor.
“This was supposed to have been a peace-building consultation between the minister and the Xolobeni community which is directly affected by the proposed plan to mine their ancestral lands for heavy mineral deposits.”
She also said the moratorium preventing mining activities had been put in place to allow peace and harmony to be restored after the growing conflict, which had led to violence, culminating in the murder of the chairman of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, Sikhosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Radebe, two and half years ago.
“Xolobeni community members were looking forward to engaging with Mr Mantashe to voice their concerns but are now extremely upset, firstly because they feel marginalised by the process, secondly by a highly intimidating police presence and thirdly because of the arrest of their lawyer when he was working to negotiate with the organisers, the police and the minister to ensure that the peace-building purpose would be served.”
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