Sefikile community marches for justice: Siyanda Bakgatla Platinum mine must end exploitation and exclusion.

Christinah Mogobye

By: Christinah Mogobye

Sefikile community marches for justice: Siyanda Bakgatla Platinum mine must end exploitation and exclusion.

Siyanda Bakgatla Platinum Mine is located in Swartklip, 13,1 km from our village, Sefikile. We have been concerned and expressing our frustration about the lack of development in our area. We have demanded answers regarding the absence of tarred roads, job opportunities, bursaries, internships, and learnerships. However, Siyanda Mine informed us that the budget for Sefikile village has been sent to the Moruleng tribal office for management. Yet, we have never received anything from the Moruleng tribal office since then.

This mine has been extracting platinum and wealth from beneath our feet, yet we have endured poverty, darkness, and neglect. Our community has called SBPM to address urgent issues, including broken internal roads, non-functioning streetlights, youth employment, and exclusion from Social Labor Plan (SLP) benefits. Instead, our pleas have gone unanswered, and we have faced threats and manipulation.

In recent weeks, during a peaceful and lawful march organized by the community, Mine management chose to involve the police to intimidate us instead of addressing our needs and concerns. This behavior highlights the ongoing mistreatment we experience from the mine.

Furthermore, the Department of Mineral, Petroleum Resources, and Energy has failed to take action against these human rights violations and has neglected its responsibility to monitor the implementation of the Social Labor Plan. Despite our peaceful efforts, all our pleas have been dismissed.

The struggle for justice will continue.

We will not be silenced by intimidation

We will not retreat from our right to peaceful protest

We will continue to fight peacefully until the law serves the people, not the powerful.