Hundreds of supporters of lobby group Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) descended upon the headquarters of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in Tshwane on Wednesday morning to protest against the proposed establishment of Glube coal mine in Vereeniging.
VEJA leader Mduduzi Tshabalala, who is from Waterdaal in the Vaal area, told Tshwane Talks that most residents in the Vaal area don’t want the proposed mine because it is going to compromise the quality of water in the area, bring water pollution and consume a lot of fresh water which is needed by the community but will instead be used to wash up the coal that would be extracted from the mine.
“The proposed mine is an open cast project which research has shown that it usually brings about lung cancer disease among residents living nearby and many people in the Vaal area are already living with respiratory diseases, and should the mine be given the go-ahead, then lots of patients living with asthma, eye infections and skin irritation will be adversely affected,” he said.
“There is no provision for water demand that will be needed by this proposed coal mine project and in Waterdaal residents have been living without clean water for the past 15 years and only a few plots in the area have boreholes to pump water,” he said.
Tshabalala said the coal that is going to be extracted from the mine won’t benefit South Africa as such coal will be exported to other countries for profit,and leave local Vaal residents with an ecological burden and health hazards.
He revealed that on July 12 this year they as VEJA protested and submitted a petition at the offices of a mining company called Canyon Coal in Sandton, Johannesburg, which is the company that wants to establish Glube Coal mine in their area.
“But Canyon Coal has made it clear that they are not retreating from the mining project but that they are going ahead with the establishment of the Glube Coal mine and that it will use National Water Act to access water for the coal mining project, meaning local residents will continue struggling for access to water while a mine nearby will have fresh water for its project,” he said.
“The Department of Water and Sanitation prioritises provision of water to mining projects rather ordinary citizens and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy doesn’t care about the fact that most of the fresh water needed by households in the Vaal area is sitting inside the facilities of mining facilities and it is referred to as slime dams, and will never be recovered,” lamented Tshabalala.
He pointed out that in their memorandum of demands they are asking the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to reveal what its climate change plan is regarding water demand in the community, how many mining projects the department is going to keep on approving and where the water for those mining projects will come from.
“Should the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy approve the establishment of the Glube Coal Mining Project then we will meet them in court together with their accomplices, namely the owners of the envisaged Glube mine,” enthused Tshabalala.
“The coal mine project is going to use the very same water that we are told it is scarce and which our community can’t access, our fellow members of the community are dying because of the pollution caused by the mines in our area, we are told that there will be jobs for us resulting from the establishment of these mines but the truth is there will be no jobs,” fumed Thapelo Chaka from the Vaal as he addressed his fellow protestors outside the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy offices.
“There will only be poverty and the displacement of our people in the Vaal area, we are saying no to the coal mine in the Vaal area, we are saying it now, we will say it tomorrow and we will say it forever,” he said.
David Sthuntsha Mokoena also from the Vaal lamented that they as youth and residents of the Vaal area are subjected to pollution of all kinds caused by the mines, that they are unemployed and are benefitting nothing from the said mines.
He stressed that if the environment is finally destroyed by the mines, then where are they as residents going to live and at the moment they are physically abused by pollution.
He called upon the government to put an end to mining projects, pointing out that he was personally “tired of eating pollution caused by the mines.”
He appealed to mining companies and the government to think first about people’s health and the environment before the envisaged profits emanating from mining projects.
He then led the protestors to chant over and over again the following slogan:
“Stop Mining Projects Now, Put People’s Health First Before Profit.”
Chie Director of Mineral Regulations at the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Modilati Malapane accepted the memorandum of demands and expressed appreciation for the protestors’ engagement with the department.
“We acknowledge your memorandum, but we cannot respond to everything today, we have noted your concerns, we will follow the Constitution to the letter and respond within seven working days,” she said.