Conflict of interest for activists
Kgang Moloko
Conflict of interest for activists
Public participation for a new chrome mine in the vicinity of Phokeng, which will be owned by Royal Bafokeng Resources was held on the 10th of April 2024. The meeting had an intriguing reaction from some activists towards taking action against the Royal Bafokeng entity citing not to be on the wrong side of the Royal family as the mine would be bringing negative effects to the community.
Striking a balance between fighting for justice has become a challenge because some activists have a conflict of interest between fighting injustices brought by the mines, and the fact that it will be owned by Bafokeng, and some have businesses and would not jeopardize the prospect of business opportunities and interest.
An activist who wished to remain anonymous had this to say,“ We must be careful of what we write, say, and action we take in the village as it is under a monarchy and we must not upset them and be on the wrong side“ she said.
The other activist has business interests and believes the new mine has more opportunities for the local community as it is owned by Royal Bafokeng. “One must be careful about the new mine and to be on the wrong side of the Royals and close doors for business as one has to eat and survive, activism does not provide that much for one’s well-being,” he said. Boitumelo Mokgatle is an activist and says he is also into business, he does not see business opportunities in this coming development and would not compromise his activism for business.
“Communities never gain access to business as it is for those who are close to the authorities and business groups that businesses rotate amongst them. They even create strikes under the guise of fighting for opportunities for communities to create businesses in the surrounding mines”.
Mining is a business but Royal Bafokeng Resources(RBR) must look after the interest of the community as it is a community trust and decisions should be taken by the community through Kgotakgothe(King’s mass meeting with the community from all Bafokeng villages) as they are the custodian of the assets. Kgotakgothe makes decisions and gives the king the power to look after the properties of the nation and it converges every year to take decisions.
As an activist, he will take action against injustices that will be committed by the mine.
“ Dikutle,(clans led by headmen) as a custom, have no power to make major decisions but we can show them the dangers by the mine.”
“It will not directly benefit the community as most youth will remain unemployed, The community will be overlooked in favor of people from labour-sending areas. We believe labour should be 60% host communities and 40% skilled from labour sending areas, all novice work should be for local communities” he said
As a community, some institutions and organisations will say we are discriminating, but other places have more power like in Limpopo where the rights of the hosts come first. In North West province, historically the problem is they depend on labour-sending areas that were with low wages living in hostels, and that has created informal settlements. Mines enabled the creation of townships because of labour sent people, now resources go to these areas and neglect historical host communities”.
Royal Bafokeng Resources and Royal Bafokeng as an entity should enable an environment where local people will be given first preference”. He concluded.
