Ronald Suresh Roberts: apology
On March 28 we published a story (“ANC tycoons in diamond rights row”) which suggested, among other things, that Ronald Suresh Roberts was among those who “headed” the New Diamond Corporation (NDC), which is currently in dispute with a section of a Northern Cape community over mineral rights on their land. We also implicitly called Suresh Roberts a tycoon. Neither statement is justified. Suresh Roberts is an unpaid, non-executive director of NDC with a public interest mandate, and he is due to attend his first NDC board meeting on May 24. He has, accordingly, played no role in the current dispute. Suresh Roberts is, moreover, currently working as a writer and associate researcher, and completing a book at an annual salary of R150 000.
The Mail & Guardian apologises to Suresh Roberts for any inconvenience caused.
Top businessmen with links to the ruling party have been embroiled in a row involving diamonds with members of a disadvantaged Northern Cape community
Wisani wa ka Ngobeni
Most mornings a handful of protestors converge on the ageing community building near a diamond mine in Schmidtsdrift, a forlorn settlement about 80km west of Kimberley.
They are there to assess progress made in their effort to reclaim their mineral rights from a black economic empowerment mining company, New Diamond Corporation (NDC), which they accuse of acquiring them “illegally”.
The NDC, which has been operating its open-cast diamond mines in Schmidtsdrift for the past two years, is controlled by prominent black businessmen, some of whom have been reported to be part of President Thabo Mbeki’s business think-tank.
Community leaders charge that “external political forces” have prevented them from regaining their mineral rights from the NDC. In December, lawyers claiming to represent about 1200 people who form part of the Schmidtsdrift community asked Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to intervene. They have not received a reply.
The NDC holds 80% of the shares of the Schmidtsdrift Mining Company (SMC) and the community 20%. The SMC was granted a permit to prospect and remove diamonds from three farms in Schmidtsdrift.
The three farms form part of the land that was returned to the Schmidtsdrift community as part of the government’s land restitution programme. They are still waiting for the land to be formally transferred and title deeds handed over to them.
Most Schmidtsdrift residents who spoke to the Mail & Guardian said they were worried that the mining operations were taking place before the land was formally transferred to the community by the land affairs department.
Schmidtsdrift African National Congress councillor Oabile Gift Mokgoro said two members of the Communal Property Association, a statutory body that represents them, signed a joint venture with the NDC without a mandate from the community. He said former property association chairperson Herbert Sebolai and general secretary Benjamin Letebele signed the deal without community approval. “The association reported to the community about this agreement on December 2000,” he said, “while the deal was itself signed in October 1999.”
But this week the NDC dismissed this, saying the association “regularly reported to general meetings of the community. The NDC attended some of these meetings.”
NDC executive chairperson Tiego Moseneke said his company’s view is that a “group of dissenters who failed to get representation on the newly elected property association are persisting with their criticism of the NDC”.
Three weeks ago the Schmidtsdrift community elected a new property association after the previous one came under heavy criticism from the community. Last year similar elections were aborted after an outbreak of violence. Letebele has been left out of the new association, while Sebolai has been re-elected to the lower position of deputy chairperson.
Mokgoro complained that the new association has, like the previous one, shown a lack of commitment to take up the concerns of the community with the NDC.
The NDC comprises New Diamond Holdings (formerly Kwezi), Letlotlo Investment Holdings, African Renaissance Holdings and Transcontinental Diamond Corporation.
NDC is headed by Moseneke, the younger brother of Judge Dikgang Moseneke; Vincent Msibi, a Mmabatho-based doctor; and Ronald Suresh Roberts, a lawyer. Other directors include Kennedy Memani, Murray Coutts-Trotter, Gavin H Pieterse and Alan Smith, who is the CEO.
Five businessmen involved in African Renaissance are reportedly part of Mbeki’s Consultative Council: Bobby Makwetla, advocate McCaps Motimele (the controversial Unisa council chairperson), Gabriel Mokgoko, and Msibi, as well as Seth Phalatse, a senior manager at BMW and former chairperson of the Strategic Fuel Fund.
Last year Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota backtracked from appointing Phalatse as Armscor chairperson after it emerged that he had admitted to taking a $20000 cash bribe while he was Strategic Fuel Fund chairperson.
Moseneke said it was his company’s view that “our so-called Community Partnership Scheme is ground-breaking and heralds a new era of progressive and positive relations between mining companies and the communities in which they operate”.
The Schmidtsdrift Mining Company is run by the NDC and the community’s role is to assist the company to acquire mining permits in the area. In return the community receives 5% of the annual turnover of the joint venture. The community has so far not received any of it.
The community has accumulated more than R1-million as a result so far, according to Moseneke. “NDC has been anxious for the property association to begin ploughing these profits into community upliftment projects as soon as possible,” he said.
Moseneke said the NDC had engaged the dissenting group in the community in the past and has been addressing its concerns. He said mediation, which took place last year, was constructive and recognised both parties’ rights to pursue their interests through legal action.
But, he said, “towards the end of last year, matters took a turn for the worse”. When a contractor recruited by the NDC to open a new prospecting area moved on site, the dissenters physically prevented him from starting work. Some of his equipment was seized and temporarily impounded.
“The contractor subsequently gave NDC notice of his unwillingness to proceed with the prospecting contract,” he said, adding that the dissenters ransacked the NDC’s site office and burned furniture before assaulting an NDC staff member.
In the letter to Mlambo-Ngcuka, the community’s legal representatives warned that some Schmidtsdrift residents had resorted to “violent behaviour” against the NDC’s operations because of “frustration”.
“The minister is advised that due to frustration of some members of our client, there have been several cases of violent behaviour wherein NDC’s operations have been disrupted. We have advised our client to desist from criminal behaviour as we do not support it,” the letter read.
The letter added, however, that there are strong grounds for the minister to suspend and cancel the NDC’s operations in Schmidtsdrift pending an investigation into the matter.
They also charge that the awarding of the NDC’s permit was premature because the process of land restitution in Schmidtsdrift has not been completed.
Moseneke said: “Both NDC and the dissenting group have sought extensive legal counsel on this matter. Both counsels agree that NDC’s legal title is impeccable that is, that NDC’s title is beyond legal challenge. The dichotomy between ownership of surface rights and mineral rights is one that takes time to understand and accept.”
Speaking to the M&G, Mokgoro insisted his community has grounds to challenge the NDC deal. He said his community cannot afford the services of a senior counsel to take the matter to court, but people on the ground are not happy with the mining operations. Schmidtsdrift community leaders said they were concerned that relevant authorities have not intervened to assist them.
Schmidtsdrift is a rocky and dry area, tucked away in thorny acacia bush. The community was formally awarded ownership of the land three years ago by the government after being forcefully removed 40 years ago by the apartheid regime.
Most of the Schmidtsdrift inhabitants, like George Marakwa, came back to their ancestral land in 1997 from Kuruman, about 300km from Schmidtsdrift. Now about 1200 families, mainly from the San community, live in the area. The majority of them are unemployed and are largely illiterate.
Most of the houses resemble those in a typical South African squatter camp and residents do not have access to health facilities. The only visible proper structure in most homes is a well-built toilet. The settlement does not have a high school and children are forced to travel more than 60km to attend high school classes.
Mokgoro lashed out at the NDC’s employment policy, saying the company has been marginalising locals for people from as far away as Kimberley. “They came here with their own people. They only started to employ our people here from January on a temporary basis,” he said.
“The NDC does as it wishes. They behave as if this is their land, and we do not benefit from them. This is very much sad.”
Moseneke said his company has addressed concerns over jobs and has since “recruited locals as far as possible”. He added that the NDC is now in the process of planning the development of significant alluvial mining in the area and that this will impact positively on levels of employment.
But as the situation stands at the moment, community members such as Ab Louw (58) have no hope of securing a job at the mine.
“The mine has done nothing for me. I am unemployed and can’t get a job at the mine.” Marakwa (50) said he is still waiting to see the benefits that will emerge from the mine.
“At the moment, there is nothing. I even fear that these mines are going to ruin the grave of my grandmother, which is located near to where the prospecting is taking place.”