To: The Australian public and Mineral Commodities (MRC)
Stop Mineral Commodities (MRC) taking South African land and minerals
The South African govt. is violently oppressing environmental activists (mostly women of colour) for opposing a mine in South Africa, which Mineral Commodities (MRC), an Australian company, will profit from. Local activists, who oppose the project have been violently oppressed and there are several cases of murder. Let me quote an openDeomcracy article:
“For more than a decade, Mbuthuma and local activists from Xolobeni in the Wild Coast region have been fighting to stop the construction of a titanium dune mine by Australian company Mineral Commodities (MRC). The mine would be one of the largest in South Africa. It would also eat into ancestral grounds.
Since the mining project was first proposed in 2007, there has been conflict with the company, particularly in the Amadiba community of Xolobeni. Outspoken activists, often women, have been threatened, harassed and even killed. Mbuthuma co-founded a organisation called Amadiba Community Crisis (ACC). In March 2016, the ACC’s chairperson, Sikhosiphi ‘Bhazooka’ Rhadebe, was gunned down in his home, in front of his son, by two men allegedly posing as police officers.
Instead of selling the land to mining corporations, Mbuthuma wants the Wild Coast community’s sustainable methods of development to grow. Locals produce their own food, which they sell to neighbouring cities, they fish in the waters off the Wild Coast and they have a booming ecotourism industry that attracts visitors from Latin America, Asia and the Western world.
These conflicts between the needs of indigenous communities in the global south and the capitalist appetites of foreign companies is now centuries old. From Congo to South Africa, such disputes were interwoven with colonialism and imperialist violence. Today, mining and other extractive companies continue to march into destitute communities waving cheap incentives, and collude with and corrupt public officials as they seek to sustain and expand their empires.”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/threats-and-murder-wont-stop-south-africas-environmental-activists/
“For more than a decade, Mbuthuma and local activists from Xolobeni in the Wild Coast region have been fighting to stop the construction of a titanium dune mine by Australian company Mineral Commodities (MRC). The mine would be one of the largest in South Africa. It would also eat into ancestral grounds.
Since the mining project was first proposed in 2007, there has been conflict with the company, particularly in the Amadiba community of Xolobeni. Outspoken activists, often women, have been threatened, harassed and even killed. Mbuthuma co-founded a organisation called Amadiba Community Crisis (ACC). In March 2016, the ACC’s chairperson, Sikhosiphi ‘Bhazooka’ Rhadebe, was gunned down in his home, in front of his son, by two men allegedly posing as police officers.
Instead of selling the land to mining corporations, Mbuthuma wants the Wild Coast community’s sustainable methods of development to grow. Locals produce their own food, which they sell to neighbouring cities, they fish in the waters off the Wild Coast and they have a booming ecotourism industry that attracts visitors from Latin America, Asia and the Western world.
These conflicts between the needs of indigenous communities in the global south and the capitalist appetites of foreign companies is now centuries old. From Congo to South Africa, such disputes were interwoven with colonialism and imperialist violence. Today, mining and other extractive companies continue to march into destitute communities waving cheap incentives, and collude with and corrupt public officials as they seek to sustain and expand their empires.”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/threats-and-murder-wont-stop-south-africas-environmental-activists/
Why is this important?
Global capitalism needs a global opposition. Here, an Australian company is engaged with a corrupt government to violently oppress opposition to a mine that the company will profit from. This is shameful. Do Black Lives Matter?