The assault by the state on the community living at Xolobeni, Mbizana, in the Eastern Cape drags on as the Amadiba people are again compelled to seek the protection of the courts.
Northern Pondoland has been a hotbed of activism and violence ever since Australian mining company Mineral Commodities (MRC) expressed an interest in mining the dunes along their pristine coastline. The titanium to be extracted is required for components of tablet computers and smartphones.
The community won a significant battle in November when the North Gauteng High Court ruled that Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe will have to obtain the full and formal consent from the Xolobeni community prior to granting mining rights.
However the Amadiba Crisis Committee which represents the affected community of Xolobeni also opposes the SA National Road Agency’s (Sanral’s) advanced plans to build a toll road along the Wild Coast, linking Durban and East London. They believe the route for the highway has been shifted closer to the coast, cutting their community in half, specifically to facilitate the proposed mining operation. The action committee is now challenging these plans in court as well.
This time they are accusing the state agency of ignoring any input from the public consultation process and merely rubberstamping a pre-approved N2 highway project – splitting at least two rural villages in half – without their consent. They have said the decision by the department to allow the road to go ahead did not factor in the socio-economic impacts of a toll road to these impoverished rural communities. Sanral has been trying to build the toll road for the past 15 years.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2019 من Noseweek.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 2019 من Noseweek.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
