Mining rights versus community rights

The case study details the struggle of the Amadiba Crisis Committee to challenge mining rights granted to Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources. It highlights failures in community consultation, the absence of adequate environmental assessments, and the tension between a government-backed mining strategy and a community-preferred ecotourism model. The text also critiques the use of a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner, XolCo, which the community claims is not representative.

• The Holomisa report of March 2010 identified several critical failures in the granting of mining rights, including the lack of a comparative study between mining gains and ecotourism, no proof of tribal authority consultation, disregard for Department of Environmental Affairs objections, and the absence of an acceptable environmental management plan or impact assessment.
• The Amadiba community perceives a conflict between a top-down government growth strategy favoring mining and a bottom-up, people-centred development path based on a local ecotourism project.
• The Amadiba Crisis Committee alleges that XolCo, the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partner for Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources, does not actually represent the community, suggesting that BEE legislation intended for economic redress is being misused at the community level.
• Mining rights were challenged in September 2008 due to concerns that the development would cause environmental degradation in the Pondoland Marine Protected Area and because of "fatally flawed" community consultation.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2011). Mining rights versus community rights. https://saiia.org.za/research/mining-rights-versus-community-rights/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Mining rights versus community rights. 2011. https://saiia.org.za/research/mining-rights-versus-community-rights/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Mining rights versus community rights |date=8 June 2011 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/mining-rights-versus-community-rights/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2011mining, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Mining rights versus community rights}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2011}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/mining-rights-versus-community-rights/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }