Nonhle Mbuthuma, spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), of the Xolobeni community in South Africa, was number one on the hitlist for fighting against a titanium mining company in Xolobeni village on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, South Africa since 2007.
“As a spokesperson of Amadiba, I was number one on the hitlist and targeted for elimination,” says Nonhle Mbuthuma spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) of the Xolobeni community in South Africa.
She adds “It is better to die for the truth than lies. We are all going to die anyway we are not worried about it.”
As she made these chilling remarks, a somber mood gripped participants at a solidarity conference co-organized by the Centre for Natural Resources Government (CNRG) and the Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC).
The three-day engagement brought together the Amadiba group from South Africa and the Chiadzwa and Penhalonga communities from Zimbabwe to share experiences on communal livelihoods, the environment and the socioeconomic impacts of mining.
Mbuthuma was recollecting her harrowing journey in the fight against a titanium mining company in Xolobeni village on the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, South Africa since 2007.
The proposed mine is a project by Transworld, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian corporation Mineral Commodities (MRC) and would have been one of the largest titanium mines in South Africa.
The proposed mine has reserves amounting to 348.7 million tonnes of ore grading 5%titanium. The lease area is sizeable – 22km long and 1, 5 km wide, covering 2 867 hectares. It is estimated to contain 139 million tonnes of titanium-bearing minerals, including ilmenite, zircon, leucoxene, and rutile, mainly used in pigment manufacture.
The envisaged US$ 200 million capital investment would include the construction of a mineral separation plant and smelter and the creation of up to 300 permanent jobs.
Demobilization strategy
As the MRC-funded operation faced communal challenges there was immediate intimidation and threats sent to the executive structures leading to the assassination of the Amadiba chairperson Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Radebe, in 2016.
The next elected chairperson Sibusiso Mqadi passed in 2020 after battling intestinal complications, with members suspecting poising.
She said direct violence against Amadiba members and threats are a deliberate strategy to demobilize the community from voicing their concerns over mining and invasive infrastructure projects.
“We face a threat of police in our organization, I have received death threats SMS on my phone but there is no investigation,” said Mbuthuma
“There were plans to torture and kidnap me so that they could force me to surrender the fight and abandon the community. They aim to alienate us from our community.”
At one consultation in the community attended by Minister of Mineral and Energy Resources Gwede Mantashe, Mbuthuma says she almost lost her life after riot police attacked her.
On the fateful consultation day Mbuthuma was attacked, teargassed, and trampled on by riot and tactical police armed to the teeth, only to be saved by her vigilant compatriots who pulled her away from the melee.
“Police suddenly shot bullets in the air causing commotion. One of the police grabbed me by the scruff of my and pulled me to the ground while gunshots were ringing around me. I felt like l was suffocated because some police sprayed teargas straight in my eyes.
“I still have bruises from the police that were trampling me, and I hear one saying to me, ‘You are the problem’.
“The police wanted me to be trampled down by the crowd during the commotion, but the people ran away and the community kept pushing them away and dragged her to safety,” she said.
Intimidation and threats to activists are not isolated cases, it is a trend faced by the Amadiba community and Mbuthuma says it is increasingly dangerous to be a grassroots environmental activist.
The assassination of the first chairperson Radebe by unknown assailants garbed in police uniform in front of his family in 2016 and the unclear death of his successor Mqadi were not coincidental claims Mbuthuma.
“There have been no arrests since 2016 for Radebe but we believe that the police are complicit in the matter. We engaged private investigators, but the police are refusing to cooperate with them.
“In South Africa, I must travel with bodyguards, because nowhere is safe for me as part of the leadership of the community.”
Mbuthuma says the deliberate targeting of the leadership is a temporary setback that has not quelled the fire of the community’s quest for sustainable livelihoods not anchored on extractivism.
She however admits to her frustrations and misgivings of the group in choosing a new chairperson for the group as fears abound that any person seen to be leading the movement will be targeted for elimination.
“It’s very frustrating, we put Bazooka he was assassinated. We put Sibu but his sickness of the stomach was not clear, which led him to her death.
“Right now, we are battling to say whom else we must compromise because anybody we put there becomes a target, so we are trying to move without a chairperson,” she said.
Community Priority
The Wild Coast is an incredible, unassuming combination of breathtaking coastline, precipitous and craggy cliff faces, wild and desolate beaches, secluded bays, and green rolling hills that rush headlong into deeply etched river valleys.
This is the natural beauty that the mining poses a threat to apart from the untold misery and health that it will cause to the lives of these villagers, states AIDC Alternative to Extractivism and Climate Change programme officer Maxine Bezuidenhout.
“The Right to Say No is about directly challenging power whether that is state power or the power.
of these companies. We seek the redistribution of this power so that it lies with the communities so that they can make decisions that protect their interests and their future, especially for future generations,” said Bezuidenhout.
Cromwell Sonjica, ACC administration officer, says community priorities should also be considered by the government in their development plans instead of forcing mining-based development in their coastal area.
He said their work with youths is to ensure that the vision of the movement is carried through future generations.
“We want to see the community supported in the agroecology project, with the role of the state should ensure that we have a market for the community, but the state does not even want to come in and assist.
“We are working with the youths to document the stories; we are building at the back capacitating the youths through various strategies that ensure the whole community is involved in the fight against corporate power. We have the youths to carry this vision ahead,” he said.
Mbuthuma boldly states that despite the gloom of the fight against corporate power the community remains adamant in the resistance against mining as the driver of development.
“In the future, we want our community as a no-go zone for mining because mining is a monster the destruction it causes is not the only alternative for development. Yes, mining uplifts our country but you can’t mine the whole country.
“If we think that mining is the only alternative for development, we are cutting the future short,” she said.