Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) and Inyanda have celebrated the North-Gauteng High Court’s ruling that mining-affected communities in South Africa have a right to see mining licence applications.
In a ground-breaking judgment, the court judgment cut out miles of red tape that environmentalists, activists and civil society organisations had to wade through in the past to gain access to these details, often with limited success.
Development Diaries learnt that Centre for Applied Legal Studies had presented the court with evidence gathered by both the Centre for Environmental Rights and Corruption Watch showing the low success rates of communities trying to gain access to information by using the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
The court heard that research done by the Centre for Environmental Rights showed that between 2010 and 2012, 20 of 41 applications for access to information were refused by the Department of Mineral Resources.
According to the research, inadequate communication, the inappropriate use of generic letters to refuse applications and a high burden being placed on those seeking access to information were rife in the department.
‘We are thrilled that the court has upheld the rights of the Umgungundlovu community against the tyranny of capital that seeks to exploit our natural resources’, TCOE said in a statement.
‘This should be one of many steps taken to diminish the huge imbalance in power that rural communities currently face with regard to land rights, actively participating in the political sphere, access to a livelihood, and access to the resources of the land and the commons.
‘We salute the bravery and persistence of the Amadiba Crisis Committee and the Ungungundlovu community. Our struggle against extra activism must continue in the same vein’.
They called on the Amadiba Crisis Committee and other popular associations to build strong solidarity and alliances that could resist the destruction of SANRAL and other government initiatives such as Operation Phakisa.
Source: Tanzania News
Photo source: Dennis Crabtree
