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Minerals and Energy minister Gwede Mantashe is paving a path to the next Marikana Massacre

Christopher Rutledge
By Christopher Rutledge
16 Aug 2024
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The arrogance of the ANC is abundantly enshrined in the person of Gwede Mantashe. Not only has he tried to rule the sector with an iron fist of “I know better than anyone else,” but he has also been the most effective bedfellow of the mining industry since the end of formal apartheid.

“Reason begins where speculation ends. Facts begin where assumptions end. Truth begins where ignorance ends. Wisdom begins where knowledge ends.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

In many ways, the brutal massacre of 34 miners, in broad daylight, and screened live for all the world to see, on the dusty koppie of Marikana, represents the day our ignorance ended. 

From that moment on, we could no longer claim ignorance about the true and bloody nature of the “democratic” state that followed the minority rule of colonial apartheid. 

Across the country, miners, mining affected communities and farmworkers, some of the most marginalised and excluded citizens, rose up in strikes and protests across the country as the truth of the continued oppression and exclusion became manifest in the blood that stained the koppie of Marikana on that fateful day of 16 August 2012.

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) was formed in the heat of the  broad uprising of the poor and marginalised, but was faced with an intransigent and arrogant government, which not only continued to ignore their plight, but who continued to actively exclude and demean the most vulnerable in our society.

When, in 2013, Macua sent a delegation to Parliament to comment on the proposed amendments to the Minerals Petroleum Resources Development Act, the members of Parliament (ANC members), abused those who had come to speak to their government, and berated and ridiculed the members of the community for their inability to express themselves in English.

Marches and protests


Over the following decade, Macua has steadfastly and consistently engaged those in power, by undertaking marches and protests, submitting 50,000 signatures to Parliament. We also conducted various research outcomes which clearly showed the inequality and injustice faced by mining affected communities, but these have all fallen on arrogant ears who believed in their invisibility at the electoral polls. 

This arrogance was succinctly encapsulated in the words of the ANC leader of the time, Jacob Zuma, when he said that the ANC would rule until Jesus came. Thus, those in government felt no need to treat citizens with respect and dignity, and the ANC members in Parliament and the government continued to exclude communities, leaving them at the mercy of a predatory and exploitative mining industry.

The arrogance of the ANC is abundantly enshrined in the person of Gwede Mantashe. Not only has he tried to rule the sector with an iron fist of “I know better than anyone else,” but he has also been the most effective bedfellow of the mining industry since the end of formal apartheid. 

The arrogance of the Minister and the disdain with which he treats communities, have greater resonance with the likes of PW Botha and JB Voster, than they do with a democratic government founded on the principles of participatory governance, and therein lies the end of ignorance and the beginning of truth.

Respect and dignity


After decades of demanding that Parliament treat communities with the respect and dignity demanded in the Constitution of South Africa, we finally arrived at a point during the 6th administration where at least the members of Parliament were beginning to realise that Jesus was knocking at the door and that they needed, at the very least, to present a façade of caring and listening to the people that voted them into power.

After Macua had submitted our report to the Portfolio Committee of Mineral Resources, the committee called the minister to Parliament and instructed him to meet with Macua, to address our concerns and to find a constructive way forward, as the Constitution demands.

But in a show of arrogance – the minister, the political head of the ANC members of the Portfolio Committee, agreed to the meeting while sitting in Parliament, but failed to act in good faith, and the meeting never materialised, even to this day.

Instead of meeting with affected communities as mandated by Parliament, the minister instead called a summit of “stakeholders” (meaning business interest and their supporting structures) and invited one representative from Macua to represent the interests of communities. 

Unsurprisingly, we were not able to accept such an offer, and we instead proposed that the minister and the department participate with us in a community summit, so that they could understand the issues that concerned communities. The minister and the department did not however respond to our invitation.

Wealth extracted


With the inauguration of the seventh administration, and after having survived the polls enough to form a coalition with the other friends of business, the DA, the minister was again appointed to the position of mineral resources. The message from the ANC and the DA was clearly that communities will continue to suffer at the hands of mining companies while our wealth is extracted at an ever increasing speed.

A day after the minister announced in Parliament that he would be proposing amendments to the Minerals Petroleum Resources Development Act, Macua wrote to the department to ask for a meeting so that we could share with them the mandate we have collected from the hundreds of communities we represent. During a preliminary discussion, the department agreed to hold a workshop with us to work through our proposals for amendments to the legislation, but they did not set a date.

After we had spoken to the department in a preliminary discussion, we also immediately spoke to the Minerals Council about their approach to the announcement by the minister, however, they claimed to not yet have met with the department or the minister.

It can therefore be inferred that while the minister and the department may have knowledge about the mining industry, they have failed to find wisdom. Across the length and breadth of the country, mining communities are in daily struggles with the mining sector, which uses the weak laws of the Minerals Petroleum Resources Development Act, the minister and the department, the lack of backbone of Parliament to stand up to their political bosses, the violence of the South African Police Service, and even the expensively prohibitive processes of the South African courts and strategic lawsuits against public participation, to keep communities silenced.

But if those in power who are looting our wealth had any wisdom, then they would know that they are only digging their heads in the sand before the next Marikana presents itself. DM

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