Mining Affected Communities Occupy Department of Mineral Resources in Mpumalanga

Cry of the Xcluded Update, 13 March, 2020

On Thursday the 12th of March, activists from mining affected communities occupied the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy regional department in Mpumalanga. The occupation was motivated by demands on the Department to shutdown mines activists allege are operating without the prerequisite processes having been followed.

The activists demanded that “the acting director […] assemble her team to go and close mines in Emalahleni which DMR has granted mining permits without any community consultation. These mining activities are taking place inside our KwaGuqa,Phola and other townships in Mpumalanga. DMR granted these permits without companies having done proper Environmental Impact Assessments, seeking consent from communities, without any SPLUMA certificates, without any Environmental Management Plans and there are no buffer zones between these mining activities and the communities?”

For more details about this occupation contact Mathews Hlabane via 0827079860.

For images from the occupation please see this Google Drive Folder