Local tribespeople have rejected a company’s bid to mine titanium in a pristine area of the Eastern Cape, but it seems that the company can’t take no for an answer, write James Black and Arlene Cameron
On the Wild Coast south of Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape there is a small estuary of extreme beauty and importance. Called Wavecrest, it is the southern-most home of mangrove swamps in the world and its dunes have an irreplaceable forest of indigenous hardwoods. It is also one of the most productive estuaries in the Eastern Cape, and possibly in South Africa.
The three local Xhosa tribes – the Nombanjana, Nxaxo and Cebe – have traditionally used the forest for timber and medicines, but this has had little impact on the forest as they have been careful to restrict their activities. It is as important to them as the fields that sustain their cattle and crops.
There is a small hotel at the mouth of the estuary, built originally to provide accommodation for anglers.
But in 1988 it was discovered that the dunes of Wavecrest contain a curse: they are home to substantial quantities of illuminate deposits, principally non- irradiated titanium. Titanium is a lucrative substance to mine, as it is used as a pigment in the paint industry, in sunblocks and in the aeronautics industry.
The mining lease for the area was bought from the former Transkei government in the 1960s by a company called Kings and Minerals. In 1988 Kings and Minerals sold the lease to Rombos, a mining exploration company.
Rombos approached Anglo American to mine the site. Assessors from the giant company visited the area and realised it was environmentally sensitive. They commissioned Keith Cooper, of the Wildlife and Environment Society, to inspect the site and a week after his report arrived at Anglo American the company made its decision: it would have nothing to do with mining Wavecrest.
Rombos then approached Shell. Again an environmental report was asked for, and Shell decided against mining the area.
Rand Mines was next. It took a little longer to make a decision, but after consulting Cooper and the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s John Ledger, it too could not justify the damage that may be caused and declined the opportunity.
Three years later steel giant Iscor was approached by Rombos. Unlike the other companies, it decided that mining Wavecrest was economically feasible and that its potential should be investigated further.
A short time later the Wildlife and Environment Society was approached by a Mr Kekane, a leader from the local communities. He told the society that ”a job and wealth is not an inheritance”.
Kekane made it clear the local communities would rather forsake the lure of possible financial reward and continue to live in contented peace in their environment, free of the problems associated with ill-considered, inconsiderate development.
But as time has gone by Iscor’s determination to mine the area appears to have increased, despite unanimous resistance. The only support for the project so far has come from the Eastern Cape Director of Mineral and Energy Affairs, John Carr, who has been dismissive of all local opposition.
At a five-day symposium in August last year, the three local tribal authorities stressed that the prospect of mining threatened them. They said the temporary jobs and money mining would offer would not constitute an acceptable inheritance for their children.
They pointed out that they did not have the training to do anything more than the most menial tasks, that there would be an influx of job- seekers creating huge informal settlements and irreversibly disrupting their social order, and that the damage to their environment would be wholly unacceptable.
Instead, the tribal authorities offered the following suggestions: that the provision of potable water was a priority, followed by better education, agricultural support, health services, sustainable job creation, land issues including women’s equal rights, improved transportation and natural resource protection.
The concern they had for the illegal felling of hardwoods, poor marine harvesting practices and unauthorised sand mining highly impressed the visiting delegates from development and international aid agencies, and they commented that the efforts the communities had already employed did them proud.
On November 12 a meeting was convened between all affected parties and Iscor officials on a hilltop overlooking Wavecrest’s forest canopy. Iscor’s representatives, Jacob Maluleke and Hendrik Graham, assured the hundreds of people there that the company’s actions were democratic and transparent, and that the company had the full support of the relevant provincial government departments.
Almost immediately they ran into controversy as the deputy director of conservation and forestry, Nokulunga Maswana, pointed out that his department, the technical owner of state forestry, had not been informed of these developments, let alone consulted about them.
He also said it was clear such matters had to be referred to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Forestry, and this had not been done.
Maluleke then stepped forward with his address to the crowd. He said the stakeholders, in order of importance, were the government (”the referee” in this case), Iscor, environmental groups and finally the villagers. The Iscor officials suggested the villagers had been ”hyped” by environmentalists to reject the company’s proposals.
Chief Khumbuzile Jiba asked whether this wasn’t ”the type of authorative arrogance that our country is trying to rid itself of”, and a short adjournment was called for. A committee representing the local communities then presented a unanimous decision that Iscor and its mining activities were not wanted, and one by one the chiefs left the meeting, taking their people with them.
That evening, in the subdued lights of Wavecrest Hotel’s bar, Maluleke and Graham became agitated and threatening. In front of the guests, Maluleke eventually lost his temper and stormed out of the hotel, leaving the patrons with this parting volley: ”Regardless what you locals feel, we are going to mine here.” Maluleke and Graham disappeared into the night, not to be seen again.
Anneline Fouch, representative of Iscor Mining, commented this week: ”This area will not be mined for some time, if at all.
”We are focusing on less sensitive sites in Zululand and Northern Province first. No studies have been done in the Eastern Cape as yet, and this whole issue is premature.”
But despite such assurances, small sections of the forest have been cleared, in areas which contain some of highest illuminate deposits.
A strange coincidence is that a tar road has been built between Butterworth and the village of Kentane. Although it may not be possible to attribute this directly to anticipation of mining activities, it does seem odd that, considering the dismal state of most of the roads in the former Transkei, a tar road has been built to service the small settlement of Kentane and its three hotels.
The owner of the Wavecrest Hotel, Conrad Winterbach, is concerned that there is more than meets the eye.
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His offices were recently robbed, yet the only item stolen was his Iscor file containing all his correspondence with the company.
Winterbach also recently discovered sand in the sump of his aeroplane. ”It’s not fair to point the finger of suspicion at anyone,” he says, ”but this has never happened in my 24 years of flying.”
The looming environmental battle has received the support of the Wilderness Foundation, which was at the coalface of the successful fight in the late 1980s to stop the mining of titanium on the dunes of St Lucia in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The attorney for the St Lucia case, Oliff d’Oliviera, has agreed to look into the Wavecrest matter.
Says Andrew Muir, director of the Wilderness Foundation: ”This smacks of St Lucia all over again. With titanium being available in several less sensitive areas, we find it strange that one of the few pristine areas left on the coast is being threatened.”
What are the alternatives? Stopping development for the sake of conservation alone is hard to justify and rarely succeeds without considerable compromise.
Can the area be used to improve living conditions for its inhabitants without gross environmental and social degradation? It appears so.
The Xhosa people are not intent on changing their traditional lifestyle overnight and, by doing so, creating an uncertain future. Instead they want a healthy future, with small investments creating stable rural employment, sustainable harvesting of shell and other fish, woodlots, eco-tourism and other opportunities that may be created through the forest, the fields, the shore and the sea.
Cattle farming can be improved, indigenous species can be reintroduced and it may also be possible to explore the possibilities of aquaculture, such as abalone farming.
In other words, the area has vast potential. It just needs to be implemented at an appropriate level.
In 1994 Winterbach decided it was time for strategic change. The hotel could no longer be seen as a limit-free fishing resort, but should take on the responsibility of preserving the natural wonder and its people, providing them with new skills.
The hotel began by banning 4x4s and other off-road vehicles from the beach, jetskis and speed boats were no longer allowed in the estuary mouth and anglers were asked to restrict their take to their immediate needs.
This lad to adverse publicity and has had an impact on the hotel’s profitability, but Winterbach takes the long-term view of building up a new kind of clientele who will support the ethic behind these measures.
The local communities were approached to develop a list of priorities. Winterbach helped them build a small school. A brickworks has been constructed at the back of the hotel and consultants are being brought in to assist in the provision of woodlots, vegetable gardens and improved farming techniques.
Marine harvesters are being helped to work their mussel beds sustainably, and contact between villagers and guests is being encouraged.
An educational focus has been introduced by Wavecrest Eco-Ventures, which brings groups of schoolchildren to the area to learn about the sea, the coast, the estuary, the forest and the life of the indigenous people.
Should Iscor be allowed to mine Wavecrest and change it forever? Consider the words of one pupil, a boy with a record of disobedience and disrespect. After a day at the sea, he was walking back along the beach to the hotel when he turned to his mentor and said simply: ”I never knew I had a hole in my heart until I came to Wavecrest and it was filled.”
James Black and Arlene Cameron work for Earthyear Environmental Communications in Seapoint