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Does all this mean that Motsepe has so much money to do as he pleases with our lives? – asks a community member from Ga-Mamphahlane near Burgersfort in Limpopo. The People's Eye will be bringing you heart wrenching stories of how mining giants undermine rural communities in its Mining Trauma Series.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Big mining machines were deployed to Ga-Mamphahlane village outside Burgersfort early this year to build a ventilation shaft, and on their trail, completely destroyed a sacred site.

The bucolic community claims that mogul Dr Patrice Motsepe’s mine managers deprived them more than their act of sacrilege. Other than losing graves of their relatives from the heritage site, a bush where they conduct the initiation ritual, they have also lost grazing and farming land.

When the ventilation shaft of the Modikwa Mine starts operating, they dreadfully expect to get sick from noxious gases that will be emitted from the bowels of the earth.

The platinum mine is jointly owned by Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and Anglo American Platinum.

Rebecca Nhleko whose 81-year-old mother lives in Ga-Mamphahlane told The People’s Eye that the ventilation shaft was also being built 150 metres away from the houses instead of the regulated 500 metres.

Nhleko said that the place Modikwa Mine has dug up, had been a traditional initiation site for generations and some of the initiates who unfortunately died during the rite of passage were buried there.

“They exhumed the graves and when we ask for the remains, we do not get any answers,” she said.

ARM did not respond to written questions emailed to them about two weeks and again last week.

Nhleko said the community had no one to turn to for help against the might of the mining company. Typical of how mining houses rule and divide communities to extract minerals on their land, Modikwa Mine has apparently divided the community and has its yes men and women who agree with everything they do and say.

Nhleko said since the construction started, boreholes have run dry and noise pollution has been the community’s daily bread.

“Does all this mean that Motsepe has so much money to do as he pleases with our lives?” she asked.

“This mine is the enemy of the people. We know that when you touch Motsepe, you touch the ANC. This means that we’re going to vote for a party that is willing to kill us.”  

The underground ventilation shaft will provide flow of air to the underground workings of the mine to dilute and remove dust as well as poisonous gases such as nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon – all of these gases come from equipment that run on diesel engines, blasting explosives and the orebody.

Despite the community’s disillusionment about getting assistance, The People’s Eye has seen a correspondence dated January 31 2024 that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) gave to the Modikwa Mine management about the community’s complaint.

In this correspondence, DMRE orders the mine’s management to hand over a basic assessment report that authorised the construction of the shaft within seven days.

The department also orders Modikwa management to stop any work on the site where there are graves until given a go-ahead by the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

The Fetakgomo Tubatse municipal area has been bustling with mining activities since the discovery of the platinum group of metal and chrome over the past few decades.

These activities have, unfortunately, pitted the multinational mining giants against communities for the rights to the use of traditionally-owned, communal lands.

Most affected communities have been accusing the mines of bribing their traditional leaders to give them permissions to mine behind the backs of the community members.

The mines also allegedly lured outspoken community leaders to feed them with resources to abandon their course.

From Burgersfort, all the way along the R38 road to Lebowakgomo, mining companies and communities are fiercely fighting over the use of the land and how the economic benefits derived from extracting minerals should trickle down to the development of the rural and impoverished communities.