By Tselane Moiloa
JAGERSFONTEIN – Tension has gripped the small mining town here where dirt poor residents are hatching a plan to halt diamond production in protest against a string of broken promises by mine bosses.
The palpable tension nearly crystallised into a march onto the mine, some 100 km south of Bloemfontein, this week until police stepped in and stopped the residents in their tracks.
Disgruntled Jagersfontein residents plan to apply for a court interdict against mine management to stop operations in the disadvantaged village after it allegedly reneged on an agreement to inject millions on rands into developmental and job creation projects.
Since the mine resumed operations in 2010, there have been numerous protests to get it to fulfill terms of an agreemententered into between the two groups which were supposed to better the lives of residents of the oldest mining town in South Africa.
Mining companies have been catapulted into the limelight since the shooting of 34 protesting workers at Marikana Lonmin mine on Thursday, 16 August.
The workers were demanding higher wages while a subsequent research report by non-government organisation Bench Mark Foundation suggested that workers and local communities barely benefitted from profits realised from mineral sales.
At Jagersfontein, Chris Kimber of Superkolong which attained mining rights in July 2011 said the 10 percent shareholding the community owned would be injected into the Itumeleng Community Trust to create jobs for locals.
“It is a job creation trust that will be used to create cooperatives and other businesses in the area, so that when the mine closes the people in this area will still have a means of surviving,” said Kimber at the time. Unhappy community leaders said that the diamond mine must just close shop because the place still looks the same as before the mine reopened.
“We fought for that mine to reopen, but there is no use because nothing has happened. Some people here do not have a thing; and we were expecting some developments. Instead, we just watch when the helicopter comes and takes off with loads of diamonds,” said Mamoketsi Mokhali, 23.
The well-known agreement also stated that R20 million would be injected into community development projects, while there would also be transferal of skills.
“This was also done because the mine said it would not be able to employ every resident but they should still benefit; even beyond the years of operation in Jagersfontein,” area councillor Phindile Basholo said on Tuesday, August 21.
However, the effects of the R20 million windfall are yet to be felt as the community continues to wallow in poverty and only a few locals are employed in the mine.
The mine, residents said, scuttled strike action by sending out notices to residents asking those interested in work to line up at the gate on the day to diffuse tensions.
Thandeka Ngxito, 25, has heeded the call to queue up at the gate numerous times;but has not yet gone beyond the security gate.
“I left my child in the early hours of the morning to go there. There were about 28 of us; but they took casual workers who worked there before,” she said. Those who are chosen work for two weeks, and then new people are selected, the locals said.
“We obviously don’t enjoy the treatment and the way these people talk to us, but we always hope that this time it will be different. The mine is the main source of work which is why we keep coming back. Our children have to eat something,” Ngxito said. “The few who are employed in the mine are mere assistants even though some have worked in mines for a long time. Only the people the company came with are operators,” said one of the miners who asked to remain anonymous.
The latest protest march was penciled in for Tuesday, August 21 but was stopped by police from the public order unit in Bloemfontein. The community wants to know where the R20 million which was entrusted into the Itumeleng Community Trust’s hand is and why the projects which were supposed to be undertaken have not happened.
However, Basholo said the protesting community members were being used by another mining company which lost out on the bidding for mineral rights to the mine in 2010.
The tension between Basholo and some residents came after the councillor excused himself out of negotiations with the mine.
Tensions were further heightened this week when mine manager Johann Pretorius would not give the community feedback on the day on the memorandum of demands the mine was given on Tuesday, August 7. Instead, Pretorius requested the local SAPS captain Pitso Khalane to tell the protesters that they would only get feedback after consultations with the board next week, which Khalane refused.
According to Basholo, some of the projects which had been suggested by the community include brick making, paving of roads in the township, building a stadium and a poultry project. So far, only a portion of one road has been paved, while the stadium is an open dirt field surrounded with nearby netball courts that community members said they have not used.
While they do not see eye-to-eye, the councillor agrees with community members that no development has taken place in Jagersfontein.“It means that they are not taking the community of Jagersfontein seriously,” he said.
As a consequence, the poor community has been plunged into unmitigated poverty with youths turning to alcohol, drugs and prostitution to scratch out a meagre living. Mine management would not comment, referring Public Eye to its lawyers, who said they would be meeting members of the trust in Jagersfontein next week to find out what was holding up progress on development programmes.