Bafokeng still leaderless

So much has happened around Bafokeng since our last report. BLBA held a successful AGM on 02 Sept 2012. See the following report: Organisational Report: BLBA AGM - 02 09 2012

This year marks 100 years since the passing of the segregationist Land Act of 1913. University of Cape Town held a successful conference, the Land Divided Conference, on 24-27 March in commemoration of the Act.

Bruno Seabela, the earstwhile legal guru for the Bafokeng and the Security head, Zietsman have since left the Royal house. This has added to the increasing number of professionals and senior Bafokeng employees leaving the Royal house since the start of RBN’s attempted land heist.  

Bafokeng Head of Research, Suzan Cook was out of character to admit, as reported, that Bafokeng leadership has been negligent on environmental damages caused by mining within Bafokeng villages.

The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of Mmuthi Pilane, chief of Motlhabe village against Nyalala Pilane. The Court found the Mafikeng High Court to have erred in refusing Motlhabe community permission to hold meetings and discussions about their wish to secede from the broader Bakgatla ba Kgafela ‘tribe’. This is a major victory for North West traditional communities in many respects, one of which is a reprimand of and an acknowledgement of rebuttable decisions taken in a number of cases by the Mafikeng High Court in support of imposed illegitimate chiefs. In terms of the ConCourt decision, communities are free to meet and to discuss if whether they still want to be ruled by the imposed illegitimate tribal authorities or not.

Regarding the Thekwana Community’s application for restitution of their land to the Land Claims Court in Randburg, the Minister, as Respondent on the case, had requested the Court to allow Bafokeng until the 31 March 2013 to lodge opposing papers. The Minister agrees with BLBA and Bafokeng communities’ assertion in the Mafikeng case that the historic, complex land purchases around Rustenburg and Pilanesburg will need a land rights inquiry.

Led by the Legal Resources Centre, BLBA and communities' defense on the Mafikeng case 999/08 is on course. The RBN has conceded to have committed a procedural flaw. To circumvent their mistake, they then lodged a second application based on Rule 6(5)g, that instead of dismissal, that the case should instead be referred directly for trial. The communities are opposing the second application, and want the dismissal of the main Bafokeng application first, with costs. The communities submitted to the Court a further application in terms of Rule 7 to have the Bafokeng chief submit proof, before he goes further with anything on any matter, that he has authorization to bring these cases to the Courts. Without such proof, all cases, including the main one, should be dismissed, with costs.

BLBA has lodged a submission to the Farlam Commission on the Lonmin’s Marikana Massacre. BLBA contends that Marikana is but a symptom of larger problem. BLBA urges the Commission to make findings on the genocidal behavior of mining companies and their ‘tribal’ partners, including the covert security forces on the platinum belt.

The community of Chaneng once again went on the streets in February/March and shut Anglo/ RBPlat’s Styldrift Project. Around six activists were arrested. There are in fact a number of cases on members of the community that are still outstanding. The arrests and charges leveled against community members are seen as a common intimidation tactic by mining companies and the collaborative States all over the world on poor and weak mining communities.

The queen mother, Semane, seem to have lost on her campaign to have Luka communities pay for their portable polluted water. Semane had insisted that she will install prepaid water meters in the villages. It is alleged that since the failed campaign, piped drinking water has been deliberately polluted, with many households now resorting to buying bottled water.

Poverty is an inherent feature in the Bafokeng, despite being declared the richest tribe in Africa with R36 billion in assets. Government has recently provided a number of indigent Bafokeng households, well over 100, with RDP houses.

Over the past weekend, 13 April 2013, Bafokeng’s chief Leruo Molotlegi was told by communities of Chaneng, Mafenya, Rasimone and Robega that they do not want to be part of the so called Royal Bafokeng Nation anymore. Apparently the chief tried to reinstate the Chaneng headman Setshoane who was earlier deposed by the Chaneng community.  Later on the day, at Thethe High School, the community of Luka told the chief that he is a dictator. That he doesn’t even respect his Council as he vetoes their Council decisions. Just when he was about to respond, electricity went off, only for the supply to come back soon after the aborted meeting had dispersed.

There is a planned picket demonstration against the repressive Royal Bafokeng Platinum at their offices at Fourways (Montecasino) on the 02^nd May 2013. Details will be made available on our ‘Know Your Past’ facebook group page.

The Farlam Commission hearings on Lonmin's Marikana Massacre

The Farlam Commission on the Lonmin's Marikana Massacre will start  work tommorrow Monday 01/10/2012 by conducting an inspection on loco at the shooting site at Marikana. The Commission will then move to its offices at the Rustenburg Civic Centre to compile more information and evidence. The Commission has released a media statement calling for anyone with information to approach the Commission at their offices.

The Bafokeng Land Buyers' Association wishes to make this call to the peace loving citizens of Rustenburg, to join the Association and other civil society organisations in calling for a broader, more inclusive diagnosis of 'Marikana'.  The Association believes that Marikana may have started at Luka or Chaneng or Bapong or Motlhabe or Ledig or even in Limpopo. The brutal security apparatus comprising the well armed mine security companies, the State and tribal Police have been covertly deployed around mine-hosting communities to suppress dissent and demonstrations against the mines and the puppet chiefs. All this to safeguard the mines' and foreign investors' interests at the expense of the mine-hosting communities, the workers, human rights and the (natural) environment. Marikana is only but a symptom!

Citizens are invited to add their voices and submit their opinions directly to the Commission or jointly with the Association and other progressive voices at the Rustenburg Civic Centre on Tuesday 8:30am.

Community members from Kanana village, Boitekong, Paardekraal and Tlhabane townships wishing to add their voices with the Association must contact the Secretary below between 5pm-7pm tommorrow 01/10/2012.

Statement released by:

Thusi Rapoo
Secretary: Bafokeng Land Buyers' Association
073 443 5699
30/09/2012

Statement by the Bafokeng Land Buyers’ Association on the Marikana Massacre

The Bafokeng Land Buyers’ Association strongly condemns the silent imperialist code that, ‘even in the Constitutional democratic South Africa, MINERALS MUST BE LOOTED, BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY, AT THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE SPEED, AND THE LOWEST POSSIBLE COST’.

The Lonmin’s Marikana Massacre is no different from the recent Impala Platinum uprising that took place near Luka village. In both uprisings, a number of poor souls and families lost their lives under brutal and dubious security measures. Heavily armed mine security forces opening fire with automatic rifles at demonstrators carrying only stones and knobkerries.

It is argued that the Union conflicts are engineered by the mining companies as they seek to retrench mineworkers in light of the falling (platinum) mineral prices, but more in their quest for mechanization.

A lot of noise was made in the recent past about Rustenburg being the fastest growing town in Africa. The rural villages of Chaneng and Luka, and the semi-urban Marikana fall within the jurisdiction of the Rustenburg Local Municipality. The former two about 30km west of the town of Rustenburg and the latter 40km in the east. Chaneng and Luka forms part of the so called Royal Bafokeng Nation, while Marikana is on state land, a stone throw away from Photsaneng/Bleskop village. The villages have been on the spotlight against the mining genocide taking place in the area.

Since the late 20^th century, with the platinum mineral fetching high unprecedented market prices at $2000 an ounce, the big four mining companies in the area (Anglo Platinum, Impala, Lonmin and Aquarius) embarked on expansion plans that drove the mining town of Rustenburg into a daze of growth. The urban property market in Rustenburg is believed to be one of the most expensive in the country due to the population induced increase in demand.

On the back of high metal prices, high national unemployment levels, abundant migrant labour, the mining companies were happy to employ a high number of mineworkers (many subcontracted) at very low wages.

In terms of the mines’ social labour plans, the mines are not required to provide social amenities for the subcontracted labour. The mines submit social labour plans that caters only for a few employees on their payrolls to the Department of Mineral Resources, earning them renewed mining licenses.

When the mines retrench, the social consequences are clear for both the Municipalities and the mine hosting rural landlords. One such consequence is the increased threat of crime and violence. Tenants, backyard dwellers are soon to default and renege on their services and tenancy agreements.

To maintain the chaotic state within the mining complex, the mining companies would please and co-opt, in more ways than one, the Ministers (of Water and Environmental Affairs, Police, Mineral Resources, Local Government), the Municipality, the traditional leaders and the Unions.  The mines would for instance make lucrative long term agreements with the Municipalities for their rates and taxes. They would co-opt the Unions by paying for the Unions’ administrative costs. They would pollute the security system, sponsoring local police stations with anything from police vehicles to luncheons.

Nothing has been done about the notorious covert military operations around mine hosting communities, and the active role of the State police in it. Sanctioned by the Bafokeng chief Molotlegi, and led by Zietsman, a former Koevoet operative, the well funded Bafokeng tribal police and the very same Potchefstroom-based riot Police that shot the Marikana demonstrators, have been terrorizing the Bafokeng communities of Luka, Chaneng, Thekwana, Photsaneng and Lefaragatlhe, suppressing dissent against mines-instigated human rights injustices taking place within the Bafokeng area.

The Marikana Massacre is simply a State cover-up to the earlier killings by the Lonmin contracted mine security company. The same cover-up was extended for Impala Mine and Bafokeng security companies when Premier Thandi Modise addressed the retrenched employees. Nothing was said about the precedent setting Impala Mine’s security company shootings. We must never forget about the cover-up in Limpopo and Mpumalanga where the police fired at rural communities after Anglo Platinum blew up the communities’ ancestral graves and chased them off their ploughing fields.

With government turning a blind eye to corruption, as implied by its blatant denial of responsibility for the Lonmin shootings, and maladministration in traditional councils such as the Bafokeng, it is a clean scam for both the mines and Government. We contend that this well guarded, shameful scam, is rooted and coded in the CODESA sunset clauses on land and mining. The sunset clauses were informed by the World Bank’s 1992 guidelines on land and mining to the new democratic South African State. We contend further that the action by the State Police at Marikana is a clear indication of the nature and form of the alliance between the State and the mines in the envisaged mining reforms in South Africa.

The Marikana Massacre shows the kind of danger that civil rights organizations are faced with in the Rustenburg area. Both the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission have regrettably been indifferent and silent to the human rights atrocities taking place in the area. The two have on many occasions been summoned, without success, to the aid of the communities in the area.

As a strategy for indirect rule, a number of independent traditional villages that bought the land on which mining takes place were forced by the former colonial-apartheid regimes to subscribe to the Bafokeng chieftaincy. The Bafokeng chief and the mines do not care about the negative development on the land they know they do not own, but have Government-sanctioned use and control over. The communities, represented by the Land Buyers’ Association, asserts that as the rightful land owners, they would care to observe sustainable control and use of their natural environment, and respect for all life.

The Association reiterates its call for the State to provide adequate legislative protections to mine hosting communities.

The Association further calls on all legal practitioners and their Lawyers’ Associations, the peace loving citizens of this country, rich and poor, to come out in numbers, wherever they are, to give all support, in pursuit of permanent peace and justice in the directly affected mine-hosting communities in South Africa.

Issued by Thusi Rapoo (Secretary)
othusitserapoo@yahoo.co.uk or at 073 443 5699. www.bafokeng-communities.blogspot.com . August 2012.

BLBA to hold AGM scheduled for 02/09/2012

Bafokeng Land Buyers' Association will be holding their AGM on the 2nd September 2012 at 10am,Mokgatle Lodge. Registration starts at 9am. R100 per person will be charged to cover costs of conference,lunch and contribution towards administration. We hope to have guest speakers who will outline the way foward in terms of the latest response from the Bafokeng on case 999/08.

The North West Legislature rejects the Traditional Courts Bill

Find BLBA submission to the NW Legislature on the draconian Traditional Courts Bill [B1-2012] here.

See the media statement released by the North West Legislature here: http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nwpl.gov.za%2Fpublic%2Fuploads%2Fdocuments%2FNorth_West_Rejects_Traditional_Courts_Bill_2012.pdf&ei=DVO_T4nkEMa0hAfhw-WDCg&usg=AFQjCNE7XYOCpvr5gsixoHd9x79OsuGdxg&sig2=O2xRzMZa3xJy1SCe5FjC0g

RBN unplugged

This LRC Summary of the land struggle against the Royal Bafokeng Nation is a must read for anyone interested in the RBN land saga, and how it impacts on the livelihoods of the poor communities forming the Bafokeng 'tribe'.

Tshasa March 2012 is out for those without internet access

Here is Tshasa March 2012 

Update on the Bafokeng chief’s court application to have Bafokeng communities’ farms registered in his name

The RBN has indicated that they are finalizing their Replying Affidavit, and that they await a report from their expert. They expected to meet with their Advocate on 02 April 2012 and will give a date for submission of their Replying Affidavit shortly after the envisaged meeting. BLBA also intends submitting Supplementing Affidavits to beef up their case.

Kgale Village in Bafokeng rejects prepaid water meter system

'Ba ithare re difofu. Baagi ba Luka ke kgale ba bua gore bona gaba kitla ba duela metsi ka gore meepo e kgotletse metsi a bona mme meepo ebile ya dumela gore e tla ba fa metsi mahala. O Semane ga a batle meepo e re duelela metsi’. ‘Chelete entsi ya Bafokeng yona e dira eng? Ge madi a prepaid a fela, metsi a itswalla. A batho batla nna ba sena metsi? Ga aile go dirisa Kgale jaaka di-example or di-guinea pigs go tsenya di-prepaid meter tsa gagwe, tse le gona re sa itseng gore tendara ya teng e tswile jang. E filwe mang?’- correspondents.

North West rural communities are squaring-up against the Traditional Courts Bill

North West community leaders held three workshops to consider the Traditional Courts Bill which is currently out for public comments. Discussions on the Bill have been robust, with many depicting the brutal oppressive state of traditional governance they are subjected to in their rural communities. Communities insist that many Chiefs are not fit and proper to preside over (traditional) courts, and that the traditional courts bill should not be enacted whilst the land claims, which will have direct impact on traditional structures and governance, were still pending.

 Other pertinent points raised against the Bill are that:

1. The Bill is gender biased and discriminatory against women since the role of women in  traditional structures is not fairly treated;
2. The Bill denies accused/defendant/respondent parties the right to legal representation;
3. The Bill does not afford accused/defendant/respondent a choice to litigate in other judicial structures (eg magistrates courts);
4. The Bill empowers the chiefs to impose unlawful sanctions or punishments like ‘lepasha’ (working for the chief or community without pay);
5. The Bill does not recognize other traditional dispute resolution structures at dikutle (community) level;
6. The Bill will endorse and empower, disputed and apartheid imposed chiefs onto communities;
7. The Bill does not provide adequately on the need to assess the fitness and competency of the chiefs to hold public office like the traditional court;
8. The Bill does not afford land claiming communities a choice not to be subjected to traditional courts; and
9. The Bill does not take into account the disputed traditional authorities, land restitution process and current territorial disputes

 The North West public hearings are scheduled for the 18 May 2012, 10am at Tlhabane Hall.

‘Why are rural communities sent to a township to discuss a Bill that impacts on rural traditional customs?’, asked concerned community leaders from Tsitsing village.

Lefaragatlhe say NO to relocation, NO to Anglo’s open-cast mine project

‘Ga go tshamekelwe ko Lefaragatlhe’ warns Mosime as the community of Lefaragatlhe on two separate occasions chased Tshepi Tlhapane, Anglo Platinum, Kenny Mokate, Magosi Tumagole and Leruo Molotlegi out of the community. The Bafokeng leadership had on the first occasion convened a community meeting to unveil Anglo Platinum’s open-cast mine project. The project would effectively relocate a number of households who have built their houses on top of the platinum reserves. In a later occasion Leruo ‘came to impose a chief’ on the community. ‘Why basare batho ba tseye dipeke or digandaganda ba ikepele platinum ya bona. Sa bona ke go lwantsha batho ka go itlhomela kgosana ya bona ya ee baas gore atle a bafe platinamo ya rona’, Mosime a bua a galefile.

The Mourning of Human Rights Day in Bafokeng

The Bafokeng Land Buyers’ Association hosted a delegation of 40 South Americans as they mourned Human Rights Day here in Rustenburg. Kenya, Chile, Colombia and other countries, including Canada, were represented.

The visit sought to share information and experiences, and celebrate Human Rights day with communities endangered by extractive industries. It so happened that the visit, termed the Learning Route, coincided with the meeting of African Union’s Working Group/Commission on Communities faced with Extractive Industries which took place on Thursday 22^nd March in Pretoria.

 Henk Smith, Wilmien Wicomb and Sayi Nindi of the Legal Resources Centre presented the legal challenges that the rural mine-hosting communities are facing. They explained the evolution of the South African legal framework relative to customary law, its inadequacies from its colonial predecessors to the current Constitutional dispensation.

Dr Gavin Capps, an expert on tribal landed property, explained the convolution of the mining complex, the State and the tribal system as it impacted on the Bafokeng communities since the difacane. To guarantee and safeguard foreign ownership and control of land and the platinum mineral reserves in the Bushveld Complex, the two sectors are strategically centralized at the National offices.

 ‘In fact all legislation having a bearing on mining and land ownership are centralized at National offices. This effectively dispossesses communities and Municipalities of all control over their natural and heritage resources, and places such control and ownership into, and to the benefit of the multinational conglomerates and their imperialist nations’, added Monty Huma .

The visitors arrived in Rustenburg to a warm welcome by members of the Bafokeng communities. Phillemon Khunou of Tsitsing, Gash Nape of Thekwana, Mr Makhubalo of the Setuke Family, Buti Mekgwe of Baphiring baLuka, all painted a picture of the hardships they have endured overtime against the colonial/apartheid regimes, who established, promoted and protected the Bafokeng chieftaincy’s illegitimate rule over their villages. They alluded to their loss of land to the boers and the Bafokeng chief Mokgatle from 1869 to 1908.

Following the footsteps of the State’s charade of dispossession, the platinum mining companies have been worse, sophisticated, rampant and brutal.

Michael Mmope, Thulare Mabule and Chris Senne of Chaneng village described how Anglo Platinum and the Bafokeng chief, through their Royal Bafokeng Platinum mine treated the Chaneng land owners. Those whose livelihoods depended on the ploughing and grazing fields had to make way, without compensation, for the mine’s Styldrift project. Migrant mine labour has overcrowded  social amenities in clinics and schools. Crime has escalated and the mines continue to blast cracks in the local building structures.

‘We are faced with the same problems in Chile and Colombia. South African mining companies are starting new projects in our areas and have shown absolutely no respect for our rights’, said the PROCASUR delegates, and representatives Maria Araya and Pilar Alberada.

Land Buyers’ Association, Chaneng Community, Setuke Family, Dr Gavin Capps and the Legal Resources Center were all awarded certificates of appreciation and recognition. In presenting the certificates, the Deputy President of Ford Foundation appreciated the resilience of the poor rural dwellers, and pledged to give support to the communities.

Chris, Jan, March, Tsholofelo, and Phistus  led the slogan song ‘siyaya’ , as they resigned their Human Rights day.

Royal Bafokeng Platinum Blast Chaneng Residential Houses Open

-'Tshasa' March Motene

 In the early hours of Wednesday 07/03/2012 a terrifying blast from Royal Bafokeng Platinum mine operations woke most of the Chaneng residents up. Unfortunately, one community member of Ramogotsi Section woke up to find the outer wall of his house collapsed due to the horrific blast.

The traumatized owner of the house is in distress as he does not know where he will get the money to fix his house and his household properties open to the public, and probably thieves. The poor father has even placed a zinc washing bath to fill the gap left by the collapsed wall.

The community of Chaneng has complained several times in the community meetings about this blasting caused by the Royal Bafokeng Platinum mine, whose leader is the Bafokeng chief. Leaders of Chaneng youth have tried engaging the mines and the chief about this blasting that leads to cracking of the houses. Their complaints fell on deaf ears. Now that a wall has collapsed due to this blasting, who should take the responsibility to fix the fallen wall? Is the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, or the Human Rights Commission not interested in such abuses against the poor community of Chaneng?

‘O nyala leng?’ questions as Luka community is once more tricked and tamed with job promises

A number of people had raised concerns about Luka 13 meeting Leruo Molotlegi, chief of the Royal Bafokeng Nation on Tuesday the 13^th March 2012. People felt that the Luka 13 were being silenced with easy promises before the annual Dumela Phokeng meeting that was held at Thethe High School this past Sunday 18-03-2012. It is reported that an agreement had been reached in the Tuesday meeting for Leruo to secure a number of jobs for the Luka youth with the local Impala Platinum mine.

‘It is this master stroke that paved an easy way out for Leruo at the Dumela Phokeng meeting. As if nothing happened in Luka village when the 13 were arrested and detained for a week, Leruo came out scot free at the Dumela Phokeng meeting with frivolous questions like “o nyala leng?” (when are you getting married?)’, complained one Luka community elder.

In the meantime the same Luka 13 will face the Magistrate on the 11 April 2012 for public violence caused mainly by the past indifference Leruo had shown against the general community of Luka.  

Jubilation as Luka 13 is released

Luka 13 got released today on free bail with a warning that, they will not engage in illegal gatherings and activities leading to damaging of property and also that, they should not disturb the peace in the community. They will appear again on the 11^th of April 2012. The community came in numbers to show support and solidarity with their young members who have been incacerated since the 1st  March 2012 for blocking the entrance to Luka with burning tyres. Their charge was public violence.