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RIMM was a participant
of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development
(AWID) 2008 Forum held at Cape Town, South Africa,
between 14–17 November 2008. RIMM organised
the session titled “Eyes on the Future, Ears
to the Ground: Women Activists from Mining Affected
Communities Share Strategies, Lessons and Challenges”
at the Forum. The session began with a slideshow
and was followed by a presentation by K Bhanumathi
from the RIMM International Secretariat (India)
that was an overview of the network, its role and
objectives. This was followed by presentations by
the RIMM network members: Hannah Owusu-Koranteng,
Director of Training and Research-WACAM, Ghana;
Rossemary Ardaya Claure from Red Nacional Mujeres
y Minera, Bolivia; Ofacken Onge Nufuk, Women’s
Program Coordinator-Centre for Environmental Research
and Development, Papua New Guinea. Tanya Roberts-Davis,
RIMM member from Thailand was the moderator for
the session. The presentations were followed by
an interactive session with the audience. Christina
Hill from Oxfam Australia and Seema Mundoli from
RIMM International Secretariat Office, India, also
participated in the forum. RIMM brochures and calendars
were also distributed during the session.
The AWID forum was also the venue for the preparatory
meeting of RIMM for its Fourth Conference proposed
to be held in Ghana in 2009. The future coordination
of the network was also discussed at length. In
addition the members also attended other sessions
being organised at the forum.
RIMM
Meetings at AWID
We had perceived
the RIMM participation in the AWID Forum 2008 to
be an opportuinty for a few of our members to meet,
and had consciously worked towards holding RIMM
meetings at the forum. Extensive discussions were
held about the RIMM IV Conference that is proposed
to be held in Ghana. The IV Conference is being
seen as the crucial international strategy meeting
for the network that will focus on identifying how
the network’s activities can be strengthened
regionally and thematically and work towards developing
more intense involvement of our grassroot level
groups. The outcomes of this strategy meeting will
guide the network’s regional and functional
roles as well as identify crucial activities and
strategies of RIMM.
RIMM
South Africa Community Visits
Attending the AWID
Forum 2008 presented an opportunity for RIMM to
establish and build networks in South Africa. Post
the forum a few of the network members travelled
to Xolobeni, Mokopane and Vaal.
Xolobeni: The first
visit (November 19 & 20, 2008) was to the Wild
Coast south of Durban to visit the AmamPondo communities.
These communities are fighting against proposed
titanium mining along 22 km shoreline in the Eastern
Cape of South Africa that has been initiated by
an Australian mining company, Mineral Commodities
(MRC) through its South African subsidiary, TransWorld
Energy and Minerals Resources (TEM) in collaboration
with a local Black Empowerment Enterprise, the Xolobeni
Community Empowerment Company (Xolco). Not only
will the coastal operations and the resulting dust,
water depletion and contamination cause a complete
disruption to the lives of local people and affect
their subsistence agriculture, it will also potentially
cause the extinction of hundreds of endemic plant
species and wildlife, as well as affect the once
thriving community-based ecotourism ventures existing.
Here we met with community activists from the AmamPondo
community, as well as allied advocates from the
surrounding region. Before lending our support to
the campaign during an interview on a nationally
broadcast television programme (SABC’s 50/50),
we took time to traverse across the rural homeland
of the AmamPondo, attend a local community meeting
at the traditional people’s court, and speak
at length to Nonhle, a young outspoken woman who
is spearheading the opposition campaign.
Mokopane: From November 21 to 23 the RIMM team travelled
to the communities of Ga Pila, Skimming and Sekuruwe
in Mokopane with local activists. Here the 8th largest
mining company in the world, Anglo Platinum, operates
the Potgietersrus Platinum Limited (PPL) mine. At
Ga Pila, we met with representatives of the 26 families,
including some outspoken women, who have refused
Anglo Platinum’s removal orders. Instead of
quietly accepting PPL’s forceful attempts
to induce resettlement (including the severing of
electricity and water supplies), these families
continue to eke out a living on their ancestral
lands. RIMM representatives also had the opportunity
to speak to one of the local village chiefs. He
expressed frustration that Anglo Platinum was not
willing to meet with community members, and while
profits were being made, their promises for community
development remain unfulfilled. At Skimming, RIMM
representatives heard from Anglo Platinum mineworkers
and their families about their dismay at the housing
and working conditions, and the effects of mining
on the health of the community. In Sekuruwe, residents
were particularly concerned about the disrespectful
manner in which Anglo had exhumed over 80 graves
of their ancestors on traditional land without prior
consent from individual relatives.
Vaal: On November
26 in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, Vaal,
Zone 6 of Evaton, Bafana Makhanya, the chairperson
of the Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee
(SRWCC), and organizer met with a representative
of RIMM. As former workers of a local Samancor manganese
smelter (operated by BHP Bhilliton and Anglo American),
they have joined together with widows of deceased
miners to hold the mining companies responsible
for consistent abuses of labour and health rights
of current and former workers, as well as disregard
for the health of the entire community.
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Klerksdorp and Krugersdorf:
From November 27 to December4, RIMM representative
Tanya Roberts-Davis visited various gold and uranium
mining sites in the West Rand and Klerksdorp area
of South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg. Locations
included townships in the vicinity of Uranium One’s
Dominion Reef mine, Harmony Gold’s tailings
dams and decant sites, and DRD Gold’s Carletonville
operations. In this area, land has been scarred
by mining operations that have left behind a legacy
of toxic tailings piles, pits and sinkholes as well
as slimes dams and natural watersheds contaminated
by heavy metals, including uranium, cadmium, arsenic,
manganese and lead. An explicit connection between
the substandard working conditions at the mine and
the poverty as well as poor health of the surrounding
communities working near the Uranium One mine is
evident.
RIMM
members interview with SABC 5050 in South Africa
For full report
RIMM
Outreach, Coordination and Solidarity Exchange in
South Africa (PDF format) |
