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Mining Community Networks Apply to Join Mining Charter Case

- Lee-Anne Bruce

Mining communities demand meaningful engagement on the systems intended to benefit them

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies is launching an application to intervene in a case brought by the Chamber of Mines against the Minister of Mineral Resources concerning the Mining Charter. CALS acts on behalf of mining community networks: Mining Affected Communities United in Action, Women Affected by Mining United in Action and the Mining and Environmental Justice Network of South Africa. Together these groups represent over 150 activists and community-based organisations working on mining in the country.

The mining industry in South Africa is built on a legacy of inequality and exploitation. The Mining Charter is one of the most important mechanisms we have for addressing this legacy and promoting much-needed transformation in the sector. The most recent version of the Charter, released by the Department of Mineral Resources on 15 June this year, features some transformative amendments. These include ensuring mine workers and communities have decent living conditions and mines contribute to development in the areas where they operate.

However, this Charter and all previous versions were developed without engaging with the affected communities themselves. For the past 15 years, these negotiations have involved only three parties: the state, mining companies and organised labour. Despite being directly interested and affected parties, communities have not been afforded an opportunity to participate in negotiations for any iteration of the Mining Charter.

Mining affected communities continue to bear the greatest burdens of mining – losing farm land to mining operations, facing environmental harm and degradation and suffering from illnesses caused by pollution. They are a core stakeholder in mining and should be engaged meaningfully on policy and regulations for the sector and programmes intended to benefit them. We cannot have a truly transformed Mining Charter or a truly transformed mining industry without meaningful community participation.

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA), Women Affected by Mining United in Action (WAMUA) and the Mining and Environmental Justice Network of South Africa (MEJCON-SA) represented by CALS are therefore challenging the Charter. We are asking the Court to allow us to intervene in the case and to set aside the current Charter for this failure to meaningfully engage affected communities. We further seek a declaratory order that mining affected communities are recognised as a key stakeholder and must be meaningfully engaged when developing any new Charter through a process that is transformative, democratic and transparent in line with the Constitution.

The matter is set to be heard in the Pretoria High Court from 13 – 14 December 2017

For inquiries, please contact:

From the mining community networks:

From the Centre for Applied Legal Studies:

ABOUT MACUA

Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) is a co-ordinating body representing and advancing the rights and interests of mine-affected communities across eight provinces of South Africa. The network is made up of 50 community organisations and calls for communities to be granted a greater say in issues that affect their human rights and which they believe is denied to them in current regulations governing the mining sector.

ABOUT WAMUA

Women Affected by Mining United in Action (WAMUA) is an official national platform formed within MACUA with the purpose of advancing the rights and interests of women in mining affected communities. WAMUA aims to advance and support women in mining affected communities to strengthen their participation in community decision making processes and influencing local, provincial and national policy and legislative process in the mining sector.

ABOUT MEJCON-SA

The Mining and Environmental Justice Community Network of South Africa (MEJCON-SA) is a network of communities, community based organisations and community members whose environmental and human rights are affected, directly or indirectly, by mining and mining-related activities. Since its constitution on 17 October 2012, MEJCON-SA’s membership has to grown to 70 members, including representatives of various individuals, community-based and civil-society organisations throughout South Africa.

ABOUT CALS

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) is a public interest law organisation based at the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand. Founded in 1978 by Professor John Dugard, CALS continues to use a combination of research, advocacy and litigation to advance human rights and social justice. Read more about our work at /cals/.

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