The state-owned African Exploration Mining and Finance Company has withdrawn applications to prospect for minerals on several wine farms in Cape Town and Stellenbosch — but the battle for the winelands is far from over.
It emerged this week that the company has not withdrawn its application to prospect on the Boontjies Rivier farm in Worcester, confronting local farmers with the prospect of a costly legal battle.
Local wine farmer Willie Botha is perplexed by the move on the sub-divided farm, owned by eight different families.
“There are six wine farms here and two cellars. Some of us are sixth-generation wine farmers,” said Botha. “We don’t know their agenda, but we don’t think they’re really looking for minerals.”
No one consulted the farmers or visited the land. A notice was sent to one of the cellars, notifying the owners of the application to prospect.
“Some of the oldest vineyards were planted more than 100 years ago,” said Botha. “But we won’t let it happen. We’ll fight it all the way.”
Some farmers are asking whether African Exploration’s move is a veiled government attempt to expropriate their land.
DA mining spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt told residents at a public meeting this month that the Council for Geoscience had found that there are few minerals in the area, prompting concerns that it is being targeted for low-cost housing and land restitution.
African Exploration says it wants prospecting rights for tin, zinc, lead, lithium, copper, manganese and silver on Boontjies Rivier.
The farmers’ legal representative, Martin Coetzee, said he spoke this week to the consultants for African Exploration, who did not indicate that they were withdrawing the Boontjies Rivier application.
Environmentalists are concerned about the rate at which the company, owned by the government’s Central Energy Fund, is being granted Âprospecting rights and fear that it may be exempted from environmental scrutiny.
But Sivuyile Mtakane, manager of the Western Cape mineral resources department, said that any application to prospect made to his office would be assessed on its merits, adding: “No company will be given special treatment.”
Confusion arose when the group chief executive of the Central Energy Fund and African Exploration chairperson, Mputumi Damane, announced earlier this month that the company had decided to withdraw its application to prospect in the Western Cape “for strategic business reasons”.
But according to the Winelands Action Group, the consultants for African Exploration said the company is still pushing ahead. A copy of the letter, in the Mail & Guardian‘s possession, states that “no prospecting rights had been withdrawn for the Western Cape”.
Damane said he did not know why this statement had contradicted his position, which was now public.
An insider said the company had bowed to “political pressure” in drawing back on the winelands. After making more than 1 000 applications across the country, it would now focus elsewhere.
Gary Jordan of Jordan Wine Estate has led the charge against African Exploration, launching a Facebook page, Stop Mining Our Winelands, which has drawn international reaction.
Moving in
Dirkie Morkel said he was “really naive” not to have paid attention when he received a notice in 2008 saying that brickmaker Corobrik had applied to prospect for clay on his wine estate.
Morkel is the fourth-generation owner of Bellevue, in the Bottelary area, between Kuils River and Stellenbosch. “When Corobrik furnished us with a so-called “prospecting work programme” I considered the matter so absurd that I didn’t give much attention to it by raising objections or taking other steps,” he said.
Although the farm is zoned for agricultural use, Morkel later received a letter from the minerals department telling him that Corobrik had been given rights to prospect for clay on Bellevue.
Corobrik managing director Dirk Meyer visited the farm in October 2009. “It appeared to me they were surprised when they learned that there were vineyards on the land,” said Morkel, who has now hired lawyers to fight the prospecting. Meyer could not be reached for comment.
In the George area the African Exploration Mining and Finance Company has now targeted Sandkraal Farm, which includes the 80ha privately owned Ballots Heights Nature Reserve.
Sally Kennedy, Sandkraal co-owner, said she understands that African Exploration is also eyeing farms in the George area.