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KZN’s environmental human rights defenders face murder, threats, intimidation — here are their stories

KZN’s environmental human rights defenders face murder, threats, intimidation — here are their stories
Residents’ concerns include livestock dropping dead due to contaminated water sources, house walls cracking owing to the mine encroachment, and having to regularly deal with what they believe are chemically infused dust clouds from the mine. (Photo: Supplied)
Naledi Sikhakhane
By Naledi Sikhakhane
9 Dec 2024
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Activists list being tracked, threatening calls, bribery and surveillance as deterrents to their fight against pollution, cracked houses, livestock dying everywhere and other results of living near mining establishments

The residents of Mbabane village in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, were hopeful when they saw a new establishment come into the community in 2021. They thought it might bring employment and development but they soon realised they would not reap any benefit from the Ikwezi coal mine, which instead had a negative impact on their health, environment and sources of income.

Kwazi Dube, a resident of Mbabane and an environmental activist, says he has recently begun coughing blood due to the dust clouds from the mining activity. Some of the concerns residents have are their livestock dropping dead due to contaminated water sources, their house walls cracking owing to the mine encroachment and having to regularly deal with what they believe are chemically infused dust clouds from the mine.

The mine is close to two schools and other community spaces. The negative effects of mining on towns is well documented in South Africa and yet environmental activists find themselves screaming into a void with little to no engagement from relevant authorities. Instead of finding support, they are left to their own devices and face alleged repression from those who benefit from the mines and the corporations themselves.

Dube and other activists in the area report threatening calls saying: “If they continue being trouble(some), they will die.” In 2022, they opened a case at the Dannhauser police station, but the police said they could not follow a case where the perpetrators called from unknown numbers. A comrade of Dube, Themba Khumalo, presented Dube’s case, along with the other threats they face, to the UN special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor on Sunday, 24 November in Durban. 

Khumalo said that in 2023 the Sukuma Environmental Justice (SEJ) organisation and residents blocked Ikwezi mine trucks from using the gravel road that is also used by school children and the elderly heading to the local clinic. SEJ alleges that a security company opened fire with rubber bullets on the residents, including women and children.

“We are still traumatised by this as the same security company operates in the community with their big guns. Nothing has changed, some people have had to relocate due to fear of being killed” Khumalo said.

SEJ says it has written a number of memorandums and requested meetings with the mine. The last time mine management responded was in 2019 when they addressed issues around hiring locals, young people and community development. They did not address the environmental impact and how it would be mitigated.

Protection 


Daily Maverick has visited, interviewed, attended meetings and summits with human rights defenders from rural KwaZulu-Natal and this report records some of the challenges they face and their efforts to receive help.

One of these meetings took place in August 2024 where groundWork, a nonprofit environmental justice organisation, called on stakeholders to discuss how to protect human rights defenders.

It was attended by the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO), assisted by the HRD (Human Rights Defenders) campaign under groundWork, as well as other organisations from around KZN.

The meeting was about KZN SAPS, the mayors from the uMkhanyakude district and the Mtubatuba local municipalities, and the affected communities of Mpukunyoni, Fuleni, Newcastle and Masakhaneni making a collective commitment to protecting rights defenders in KZN who are being intimidated and killed for protecting their rights and those of the marginalised community.

Read more: UN rapporteur Mary Lawlor highlights women’s voices amid human rights struggles in South Africa

groundWork coal campaign manager Robby Makgala said the meeting was an advancement of the call for a development of a model law to protect the human rights defenders and whistle-blowers in the country via the HRD campaign and the Somkhele coalition. 

“The meeting was well attended, (however) the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) KZN and [Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, CoGTA], who were also invited, failed to honour the invitations. These two departments were important for this meeting as the Ipid also deals with police violence against peaceful protesters. CoGTA was invited to facilitate the issues where traditional councils are serving the interests of the mining at the expense of the community,” Makgala said.

Community representatives had expressed concern that the police were not protecting them against criminals, citing threats, intimidation and murder.

Read more: ‘I want to die before they take this land’ – residents fear eviction after mining company reapplies for opencast mine

“During protests in another incident in Somkhele, one person (had a gun pointed at them) during a peaceful protest in the presence of the police and the police did nothing to arrest the criminal. All these incidents were mentioned in the presence of the station commanders from KwaMsane SAPS, KwaMbonambi and Melmoth,” Makgala told Daily Maverick.  

At the meeting the Mtubatuba mayor confirmed the difficulties the Somkhele coal mine brought to the community because he too lives there and was there when the mine started. 

SAPS provincial delegate Sipho Kunene condemned the police’s failure to protect residents, noted all the cases brought forward and promised to follow up on them. 

“The resolutions taken in the meeting were that we need to have another meeting with other stakeholders like CoGTA, [Department of Mineral Resources and Energy], traditional councils, etc to develop other resolutions as a broader collective to deal with the HRD issues,” Makgala said.

This is expected to happen in the coming year.

In late November the Human Rights Defenders at the Frontline of Environmental Justice held a workshop as part of the Human Rights Defenders summit in Sandton, Johannesburg. About 40 environmental activists from KZN, across the country and Africa took part. The facilitator gave an exercise mapping the threats they face, where they come from and how this makes them feel.

Activists listed threats including multinational corporations, police, security agencies, political party factions, community factions and the judiciary. 

Many cited being surveilled, tracked and followed, receiving anonymous SMS threats and threatening phone calls as some of the primary ways they are threatened. This had resulted in some being forced to relocate, which they felt weakened their activism initiatives.

Human Rights Defenders Residents’ concerns include livestock dropping dead due to contaminated water sources, house walls cracking owing to the mine encroachment, and having to regularly deal with what they believe are chemically infused dust clouds from the mine. (Photo: Supplied)



An activist from Somkhele who is part of the MCEJO said that after activist and former chairperson of the organisations Mam Fikile Ntshangase was shot in her home, the organisation has not been the same. “People are afraid of creating a new committee as this will set targets on their backs. Right now there are places I can’t walk in my community because people will say I am not allowed or let me know they are watching me. I don’t leave the house via the same route to avoid being followed and I will stay indoors so they don’t know whether I am home or not,” he said.

He spoke to Daily Maverick after the workshop, when UN Rapporteur Mary Lawlor visited his house following a visit to Ntshangase’s home as part of her South African visit.

Lawlor was visiting on her own accord and needs approval from the South African government for an official country visit, after which she can  compile an official report for the Human Rights Council and other stakeholders.

Melmoth


Environmental activist Mbhekiseni Mavuso from Ntembeni near Eshowe is currently living in hiding due to threats and news that the deadline for his death is December before the R38-billion Jindal iron ore mine opens in January 2025. 

Daily Maverick has previously reported on the tensions between the Jindal mine and residents of Ntembeni in Melmoth. 

Read more: ‘I want to die before they take this land’ – residents fear eviction after mining company reapplies for opencast mine

Mavuso was shot and injured in March 2024 along with fellow activist Mbhekiseni Dladla, who died in the incident. It was not the first attempt on his life. He leads the movement against the mine over environmental and cultural issues. The mine project is expected to lead to the relocation of several villages.

Deadly threats


In his brief to Lawlor, Mavuso said a young man shot at him and Dladla. When the perpetrator realised he hadn’t succeeded in killing them he hacked Dladla to death with a tool. He is in custody for murder and attempted murder.

“As I speak I no longer live in the area because the mine wants to get rid of me before they start mining next year. I have a home in Makhasaneni but now I am homeless. I get threats now and again telling me to allow Jindal mine to work, [and] if I don’t do that I will be killed. As I speak I am in hiding,” Mavuso told Lawlor. 

At the meeting in August a speaker noted: “We have to do something, we cannot keep having cases where a human rights defender says they are after me, they are after me, until they finally get to them and they are dead. We have to change that”. DM

This article was written with support from Intelwatch, an organisation dedicated to strengthening public oversight of state and private intelligence services in southern Africa and around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

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