/ 28 September 2016

Mathews Phosa’s ‘hidden hand’ in royal war reaps rich mineral rewards

illeagal chrome mining in Limpopo.
illeagal chrome mining in Limpopo.

While a kingship battle rages over who is the rightful heir to the Bapedi throne, businesspeople are calculating how best to profit from the nation’s mineral-rich land.

Two weeks ago, the Mail & Guardian reported on how illegal mining was destroying the desperately poor community that lives along the R37 between Atok and Burgersfort in Limpopo.

It has now emerged that several companies and individuals have, for years, been hard at work lobbying the department of mineral resources for permits to prospect and mine in the chrome-rich Sekhukhune district.

Anyone seeking such a permit – even a king – has to first obtain the Bapedi tribal council’s stamp of approval. The council, however, has been at war for years over the matter of who is the nation’s rightful leader.

According to the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, the acting king of the Bapedi nation is Kgagudi Kenneth Sekhukhune. But politician and businessperson Mathews Phosa, who has a vested interest in the matter, says the rightful king is Victor Thulare. Phosa is one of the directors of Bauba Platinum, a company that owns prospecting rights for some of the farms in Sekhukhune.

The royal conflict goes back to before Thulare’s father, Thulare Rhyne Sekhukhune, died in 2006. According to Phosa, Thulare Rhyne had applied to the department for the prospecting rights on one of the farms in the vast Sekhukhune belt, on behalf of the Bapedi nation, making his son, Victor, next in line to the throne.

Then in 2010, President Jacob Zuma recommended that Rhyne Thulare – who died in 2006 – be recognised posthumously as the rightful king of the Bapedi nation.

Neither Phosa nor representatives for Bauba Platinum could explain why the department of mineral resources signed off the prospecting rights on behalf of the Bapedi nation to Rhyne Thulare in December 2007 – at the time Rhyne Thulare had not yet been recognised as the king.

In a response to the M&G‘s questions, Phosa said: “The commission on traditional leadership disputes and claims found that (Rhyne Thulare’s son) King Thulare Victor Thulare is the rightful king of the Bapedi nation.”

Two years after Zuma’s recommendation, the Bapedi nation’s prospecting rights were ceded to Bauba Platinum, a company established in 2006.

About the same time, Rhyne Thulare began applying for the prospecting rights on some of the farms on the mineral-rich land.

In 2012, Kgagudi Kenneth Sekhukhune, who was at the time unaware that the department had given the sign-off for certain prospecting rights, went back to court to challenge Zuma’s recommendation and the commission’s findings.

He also sought a ruling on which council had the authority to decide to make decisions on behalf of the Bapedi.

Lawyer Tinus Slabber, acting for Bauba Platinum, is adamant that despite the court case, Zuma’s recommendation had brought an end to the dispute.

“It follows that he [Kgagudi Kenneth Sekhukhune ]has no ‘royal council’. It is not for Bauba in any form to become involved in this dispute and it has throughout dealt with the late Thulare Rhyne Sekhukhune and his successor, being his son King Thulare Victor Thulare III and their royal council as the only legitimate representatives of the Bapedi nation in accordance with the Government Gazette,” said Slabber.

Bauba Platinum holds numerous prospecting rights on behalf of the Bapedi nation, most of whom live in abject poverty.