SA has an ugly relationship with mining in economic and historical terms. The recent collapse of the tailings dam at a mine in Jagersfontein, Free State, is the latest of a series of events that have occurred in which mining profits were clearly being pursued at all costs – despite the destruction of the environment, neighbouring communities, and indeed people’s lives.
International mining conglomerates such as De Beers, Anglo American and Lonmin have made billions of rand in profits from digging out South African minerals for decades. These mineral profits were subsidised by every government that has led SA for the past 250 years – with total disregard for people’s needs and their well-being.
The colonial apartheid government created racist policies that paved the way for these big international mining syndicates to make profits in SA through the proceeds of black cheap labour. Men and women were taken from their rural communities into apartheid cities as migrant labourers to work for years earning close to nothing.
They retired sick, injured and extremely poor without any means to make any material difference to their families and communities. Their long absence from their families also broke down family structures, leaving behind wives and children in generational trauma and perpetual poverty.
The shape and social fabric of every township in SA today is a product of this mining legacy – and it was never held accountable for this gross damage.
The post-1994 democratic government continued with enabling this exploitative relationship that SA has with mining. The Marikana massacre was the moment we saw it all blow up in our faces.
Government deployed black leaders who fought against apartheid to be part of the mining boards and executives to temper labour dissent. Cyril Ramaphosa is a living example of this post-colonial betrayal.
In addition, the democratic government allowed the mining companies to continue exploiting black cheap labour for massive profits, and overlooked the huge damage that these mining gurus were making to land, communities, and innocent people.
The people’s government turned a blind eye to the exploitation of its own people and chose to protect these private interests and their profits.
If people dare to revolt and demand justice and accountability, the democratic government responds with violence – as we saw in Marikana.
The police were prepared and ready to kill people in defence of international capitalism.
The same behaviour from the democratic government has arisen in Jagersfontein. Government did not do its homework by taking responsibility for the mine to monitor its operations and ensure that it protects the community and contributes to their development and well-being.
It failed to do this duty and allowed the Super Kolong mining company to chase profits in the face of clear harm against the people. For government to keep emphasising that the mine belongs to a private company is a lame excuse. It is an attempt to run away from its public duty. Government is supposed to take control of mining rights on behalf of the people and use the proceeds of mineral resources to fund development and industrialisation.
This is what was at the core of the demand for the nationalisation of mines by the country’s youth movement. Take the mines away from private hands as a people’s government in order to use them to serve the public good because they command massive resources and wealth that could alleviate poverty and many other areas concerning our national development targets.
Government failed to do this. It allowed mining to continue in private hands to accumulate profits and the Jagersfontein collapse has shown once more the dire consequences of putting profits before communities and people.
As citizens we now need to realise that we are on our own. The poor communities and the women in mining towns – who don’t have access to the media and middle-class activists to tell their daily stories of suffering at the hands of mining companies, the exploited workers, immigrants, and the entire working-class and the poor of our country, they are all on their own.
No government or mining giant is coming to give them economic freedom or relief. Those two forces only care about profits.
The people must organise, agitate and demand ownership of their country and its precious resources and wealth. The elites have failed. The people’s power is the solution. The people must now begin to get even more angry.
* Dr Mzileni is a research associate in the faculty of humanities at Nelson Mandela University
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