Bua Mining Communities

It was on the 10 th  February 2017 in North West of South Africa near Sun City, community members of the village called Chaneng marched to Styldrift mine. The last past 2 years the community have been trying to apply for a legal march, and the Public Safety department rejected all applications. The ward 2 EFF applied for the march on behalf of the community and it was approved. On the day of the march we saw youth dominating. When the community arrived at the mine they found that the police had already barricaded the entrance with razor wire and having dogs as if the community were in an illegal march. Leadership asked for mine management to come and receive the memorandum, unfortunately  no one came and they responded by saying they didn’t know anything about the march, ironically they had jerked up security even without knowledge of the march.

Communities oppose relocation of Farlam Commission to Pretoria. Mining  community members oppose the proposed relocation of the F arlam  Commission from R ustenberg  to Pretoria  as it will reduce them to being merely spectators rather than giving them the opportunity to effectively participate in the process.   As integral stakeholders in the Marikana massacre, the relocation would prevent many of them from attending as the costs involved would be unaffordable as the communities are poor and mainly live in informal and rural settlements.   “While we understand the reasons behind the request to move the Commission to  Pretoria  by Advocate  Dali Mpofu , we urge Judge  Farlam  to consider our request not to do so,” says  Chris Molebatsi , from Marikana community and spokesperson for  Bua Mining Communities .   “It would put us in an extremely disadvantaged position and would alienate us completely.”   Moleb...

Rustenburg BUA activists expressed concern that the Farlem comission was ignoring the true reasons for the Marikana Massacre. The opposed the moving of the Comission hearings to Pretoria.  They shared experiences across villages on their struggle again st the mining corporations and traditional leaders. They talked about the proposed mining charter and they watched a documentary video on the global economic crisis and how it affected South Africa.

Mineworkers have long been undermined and belittled by mining companies, a social rights movement said on Tuesday. “The slave living and working conditions under which mineworkers are exposed cannot be condoned in the current South African constitutional democracy,” said Bua Mining Communities co-ordinator Thusi Rapoo. Bua Mining Communities (BuaMC) is a social movement representing more than 10 mine-hosting communities in and around the Bojanala platinum district municipality in the North West province. It aims to safeguard and monitor human rights violations, and to enhance fairness and justice in all mine-hosting communities within the area. “Long after the adoption of the mining charter the conditions of miners still have not improved,” Rapoo said. “The evident persistent squalor [in] mining and living conditions for workers illustrates the resistance of mining companies to the transformation agenda.” The organisation called on mining companies to restore the dignit...