The development battlefield of the Wild Coast is approaching its most important legal battles to be fought, since in the upcoming months of 2010 some important decisions will be made which will have lasting implications for the rural communities of the Wild Coast. The AmamPondo are an indigenous people, and this is only being recognized as of late according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and this development can help to achieve the objective of improving the situation of local communities in the Wild Coast and in the long term too the situation of indigenous peoples the world over.

“Indigenous peoples have the right to selfdetermination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 3) Sustaining the Wild Coast is a section 21 NGO working with a loose network of organizations and individuals who are concerned about bringing about development which is ecologically sound, equitable, respects indigenous AmaMpondo communities as well as their local histories and cultures and brings benefit directly to the local people. SWC wishes to disseminate and receive information, ideas, and opinions about the development predicament in which they are situated and establish practical collaborative programmes demonstrating ways out of this predicament. This situation comprises the fact that the South African Pondoland Wild Coast, a Local indigenous AmaMpondo communities have systematically had their human rights infringed upon due to these development plans by means of inequitable governance processes, intimidation and silencing alternative views on development throughout the exploratory and planning phases of mining in recent years. SWC takes their lead from local rural AmaMpondo communities and is united with them by a concern to prevent the undermining and displacement of those local communities, their livelihoods and their life worlds.

There have been serious shortcomings in the approaches employed to engage with local indigenous communities and a ‘top down’ method of project development which has entailed that the government’s proposals for projects like the mining occurs with no or insufficient consultation with communities leading to projects which are radically out of step with indigenous communities observations and needs. SWC is concerned that the proposed mining and road developments focus on bringing about a type of economic growth which favours capital accumulation by an elite minority of interest groups which stand to benefit from the construction of the mine and road which will occur at the expense of the AmaMpondo indigenous communities who have historical and cultural ties with the land.

This call for attention is supported by the experience of the AmaMpondo of having been systematically impeded in exercising their democratic right to resist the imposition of a development trajectory which brings about unacceptable inequities in land and resource distribution, leading to the benefit of a privileged few, degradation of irreplaceable unique biodiversity and ecosystem functions and values as well as marginalisation and displacement of indigenous and local communities. SWC is not opposed to all development, it is opposed only to inequitable and unsustainable development and supports any initiatives to develop environmentally sustainable, community-based, environmentally sound economic activities in the region.

If you would like to contribute to NGO Sustaining the Wild Coast whether it be by joining the mailing list, conducting research, financial donation or any other means please do not hesitate to contact Val Payn, Communications co- coordinator, Sustaining the Wild Coast Campaign. Email: swcoastval@gmail.com

extract from: NetWURK E-Magazine

http://www.vimeo.com/12582565

The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representing more than 3 500 companies, signalled its intention to “pull out all the stops” to block the Isipingo portion of the controversial toll road.

Municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe also confirmed that the city would lodge an appeal following an executive committee meeting this week where councillors reaffirmed a resolution taken in 2002 to oppose any more toll roads within the city’s boundaries.

Quoting from a report submitted to the committee, Sutcliffe said there had been 8 000 objections to the toll road during the environmental impact assessment process and it was clear that proposed mitigation measures from the government would not address the negative impact of tolls on the Durban economy.

A recent report from the municipality notes that 350 000 people live in the southern part of the city and many would be adversely affected by the Isipingo plaza.

The report estimates there are about 57 000 work trips through the Isipingo area during the morning peak. About 70 percent of these trips were via public transport and about 30 percent by private cars.

The Durban chamber also called an urgent meeting yesterday afternoon to decide whether to submit a legal appeal against the recent decision to grant environmental approval for the project.

Members were warned that the deadline to file appeals expires next week.

Chamber president Clive Manci said he would continue to lobby senior government officials, though some members complained that the government appeared to be deaf to numerous protests raised so far.

Manci said it was clear that the trend to establish new toll roads in Durban and other parts of the province would raise the cost of doing business.

It is understood that several chamber members, under the umbrella of the South Durban Basin Business Coalition, have already prepared a separate legal appeal against the toll plaza.

Act fast

Attorney Glendyr Nel, who chairs the chamber’s environmental committee, warned that it was essential for members to take a decision soon.

“The May 19 deadline is just around the corner, so we need to act fast to prepare a properly considered legal appeal.”

Amar Sooklal, of the chamber’s economic development committee, said an economic assessment by transport consultant Gavin Maasdorp had highlighted several adverse impacts from the proposed toll plaza.

Manci said there seemed to be a presumption that Durban businesses would absorb further cost hikes like toll fees.

“The reality is that we can’t afford further increases in production costs.”

Members would decide swiftly on whether to align the chamber with other groups lodging appeals, or to lodge a separate appeal to lend strength to the appeals process.

It is understood that environmental and social groups under the umbrella of Sustaining the Wild Coast are also finalising an appeal, along with South Durban residents and commuters under the banner of the Upper South Coast Anti-Toll Focus Group.

The KwaZulu-Natal legislature is also opposed to the Isipingo plaza, but it was not clear last night whether the premier, Zweli Mkhize, would lodge an appeal.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on May 13, 2010

Tony Carnie

THE decision on whether to allow sand-dune mining near Xolobeni on the Wild Coast has been put on hold again.

The Minerals and Mining Board was due to hear evidence for and against the mining application in Durban yesterday, but the meeting was postponed to a date still to be finalised.

The Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA president and MP, Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa, who was to chair the hearing and hear legal argument, said committee members had not had sufficient opportunity to study the substantial volume of documentation on the matter and a decision was taken to reconvene at a later date.

Journalists were refused entry to the meeting room yesterday and told the hearing was an internal meeting.

They were later advised that the meeting had been postponed.

The application to mine in the environmentally sensitive Xolobeni area, south of the Wild Coast Casino, had been made by the Australian-based company Transworld Energy, a local subsidiary company Mineral Resources (SA) and the shareholder group Xolobeni Empowerment Company.

The application was approved by the Minerals Department in 2008 but was put on hold shortly afterwards following appeals by a number of groups, including the Amadiba Crisis Committee.

The committee has complained that residents of the area were not consulted properly.

A NEW round of hearings begins in Durban next week to debate controversial plans for dune mining at Xolobeni on the Wild Coast.

Part of the mining venture by an Australian company and local empowerment groups was approved in August 2008, but was put on hold after strong opposition from Xolobeni residents and traditional leaders, who said they had not been properly consulted.

The Legal Resources Centre, which is acting for members of the Amadiba crisis committee, also threatened to challenge the approval process in court.

Now legal advisers for the Mineral Resources Department have confirmed that supporters and opponents of the mining plan would be given the chance to air their views to a panel, which would make final representations to Minerals Minister Susan Shabangu.

The hearing would be held from February 8-10 at 333 Durban Bay House in Anton Lembede (Smith) Street.

It is understood that senior advocate Gilbert Marcus and Legal Resources Centre attorney Sarah Sephton would represent members of the Amadiba crisis committee.

The original mining proposal, by the Perth-based Transworld Energy group, involved removing heavy minerals from a 22km strip of coast immediately south of the Wild Coast Sun casino.

Although Xolobeni is in the Eastern Cape, members of the Amadiba crisis committee requested that hearings be held in Durban.

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The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has announced that it will hold a legal hearing in Durban to hear oral submissions as to why amaPondo communities are opposed to titanium dune mining along the Wild Coast. DMR say the submissions will be taken into account in the Minister’s decision whether to give the go ahead for the mining application. This sets a precedent for DMR, who do not usually consider oral appeals.

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regards
 
Val Payn
Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC)
cell – 083 4416961
swcoastval@gmail.com

SOUTH African “Green Bishop” Geoff Davies is not averse to making a spectacle of himself to get the attention of his congregation.

And to draw attention to the recent wave of universal environmental degradation, one of his favoured shock tactics is to upend a black plastic garbage bin in the middle of church.

He has done this inside St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town and at York Minster in the UK.

“We are polluting God’s world and poisoning it through climate change,” says the former Bishop of Umzimvubu in the Eastern Cape. Last week, Davies was named Environmentalist of the Year and received the Nick Steele Memorial Award for his efforts.

The award recognises Davies’s key role in establishing the SA Faith Communities Environmental Institute, a body which brings together a broad spectrum of religious and faith leaders – Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Baha’i and African traditionalists.

Davies founded the institute in 2005 in the belief that faith communities should unite on the basis of morals and ethics to ensure a more sustainable future for the Earth’s people and creatures.

Though he regards littering as a “contemporary form of blasphemy”, his rubbish bin stunts at St George’s in 2007 and at York Minster last year were intended to drive home broader environmental messages.

“We are filled with awe by this cathedral,” he told the congregation at York Minster. “Yet it is nothing compared to the beauty and wonder of God’s creation. Yet every day we release toxins into the atmosphere, pour poisons on to the land and pump pollution into our water and seas.”

Just as Britain had abolished the slave trade and South Africa had abolished apartheid, Davies said there was still time to move to a world of environmental justice and to tackle climate change.

“The question is whether we care enough for the future of our children to act decisively next month at the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen.”

Earlier this week, he spoke in Parliament and lambasted the cabinet’s latest declaration on climate change.

Davies said the recent Cabinet statement that “we are not ready to agree to any (emission reduction) targets” was tantamount to suggesting apartheid was wrong, but nothing would be done about abolishing it for another 30 years.

Before enrolling as a theology student at Cambridge in the 1960s, Davies studied history and social anthropology at the University of Cape Town and also joined the Argus Cadet School to train as a journalist.

After completing his studies, Davies headed to London on holiday, hoping to hit Fleet Street.

“But Fleet Street was not exactly waiting for me, so I went to Cambridge instead.”

After his ordination as an Anglican priest, he served the parish of South Kensington before being transferred to Botswana.

He was Bishop of Umzimvubu from 1987 to 2003, overseeing church activities in southern KZN and parts of the Eastern Cape and former Transkei.

He took early retirement in 2004 and moved to Kalk Bay in Cape Town.