Bridge over iMfolozi River: Report back on Public Meetings
By Sheila Berry The first public participation meeting for the proposed iMfolozi bridge was held at the Mkhwanazi Traditional Council Chambers, Somkhele, at 9h00 on Thursday, 27 October 2016. The bridge is being commissioned by the Department of Transport (DoT), after being requested by Cllr. F. M. Mathe, and investigated…
Cultural day – Ocilwane Village
The Ocilwane Village community hosted a cultural day on Thursday 29 September, 2016. The day was well attended by young people from all around the Fuleni area. The event was organised by Phila Ndimande and kindly sponsored by KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife and the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Enjoy the fun! (please click on…
Grrrowd becomes “The Crowd Versus”
The Crowd versus Ibutho Coal Since the inception of our campaign to Save our iMfolozi Wilderness from the application to mine coal at Fuleni by Ibutho Coal, Grrrowd has stood steadfastly beside us. Grrowd was originally formed in 2014 at the Hague, in the Netherlands, with the intention to crowdfund for campaigns for social and…
Mines face fightback – The Witness
‘Coal communities’ band together against ‘company abuses’. By Chelsea Pieterse The struggle for the environment and a better future was the focus of a meeting in Northern KwaZulu-Natal of communities from all over the country who have been affected by coal mining operations. A national coal communities exchange organised by…
Wild Coast dune mining on hold
By Tony Carnie VIOLENCE and social upheaval sparked by an Australian dune-mining application on the Wild Coast has forced Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane to put a halt to any mining applications in the area for 18 months. Zwane declared the moratorium in a notice in the Government Gazette last week,…
THE FULENI VS IBUTHO COAL MATTER: A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE
By Kirsten Youens The application we are opposing has been made by Ibutho Coal (Pty) Ltd to the Department of Mineral Resources for an open cast coal mine in a rural Zululand community, on the border of the oldest Nature Reserve in Africa, the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi. The proposed mine is to…
Update on the Save our iMfolozi Wilderness Campaign
I am sure most keen supporters of the Save our iMfolozi Wilderness Campaign have been wondering what has been happening since April this year, when there was a flurry of activity around the visit of the Regional Mining Development And Environmental Committee (RMDC), to Fuleni. That series of events was covered in…
Ubambano Youth Organisation
By Mxolisi Phakathi There is a lot of talent amongst the youth in rural Zululand. To encourage and develop this talent, Thembokwakhe Shosi and I, Mxolisi Phakathi, recently formed the Ubambano Youth Organisation. Thembokwakhe is a Civil Engineer and I will graduate from the University of Zululand with a B.Ed…
Mining and Environmental Justice Conference
By Kirsten Youens For the past three days I have been in caucus with activists, lawyers, lawyer-activists, scientists and academics. Myself, along with the leaders of the Fuleni community organisations Phila Ndimande of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation(MCEJO), and Mxolisi Phakathi of the Ubumbano Youth Organisation(UYO), were invited to…
Community celebrates as iron mine plan shelved
‘Mining is a massive eviction project, not development’, says activist By Sifiso Dladla Ululation, songs and slogans set the tone at Makhasaneni near Melmoth in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday when scores of community members gathered to celebrate the decision by Indian company Jindal Africa to shelve an application to mine their land.…