Resgen trying to con the Fanpan community off their land

Community Alerts/ Francina Nkosi/Limpopo-Marapong/19 March 2017

The Fanpan community is a group of 39 people in seven families in Steenbokpan. In 2012 they agreed to lease their land to Resgen for a railway, to be built by contractor Protech Khuthele, on the condition that the company would provide services and development to the community, such as a school, sanitation, water, and electricity. However the community still lacks even though it was agreed to.

Water is only delivered once a week and often there is not enough and the community is forced to buy water. Water tanks were installed with a water pump for use by Protech Khuthele, but the community was only able to access overflow water and now the Protech Khuthele has been liquidated, the pumps are no longer in use. The school is still not built; children have to wake up at 4am to travel to school in another community. There is still no electricity or sanitation the community has to use pit toilets.

The local community at Fanpan believe that these services are not being provided because the company wants them to move from the farm to make it easier for the railway to be built. The company is refusing to meet with the whole community. In some of these meetings they have told the community they should leave the farm.

During 2014 Resgen formed a community forum to allow consultation on the Boikarabelo mine. I was initially the secretary of the forum, elected by the community members.

Resgen told us that they would provide us with laptops, smart phones and training to allow us to properly perform our duties for the forum. However the laptops were never provided, we did not receive any training, and only cheap phones were provided. This was despite my continued requests for the laptop and training. After two months, Resgen demanded we give back the phones.

At the end of 2014 we had disagreements with Resgen about their practices (including the labour issues explained below). Shortly after these concerns were raised, we were told by Resgen that we were no longer forum members and the forum was dissolved. We requested a formal meeting to get them to explain why the forum had been dissolved, but the meeting was refused. We were never told why the forum was dissolved.