PTWC Special Report Series. Part 3: Culture and Colonisation
In the third part of our series of excerpts from the recent Protect the West Coast (PTWC) Special Report publication ‘The Tipping Point’, we look at the history of mining on the West Coast through the prism of colonisation and its impact on the culture of the indigenous population, including the Khoekhoe and Nama people, who have suffered under combination of state capture, mismanaged funds, dysfunctional governance, failed joint ventures, and rapidly declining mineral resources, leading to widespread poverty.
Legal Update: Flurry of Five EAs Exposes Fault Lines in Mining Process
Protect the West Coast’s (PTWC) legal team has revealed a disturbing trend about what it terms reckless decision-making that leads to environmental authorisations for extractive, industrial and development projects in South Africa. PTWC lawyers lodged five appeals in July alone against Environmental Authorisations (EAs) for mining and prospecting in three provinces that it contends should not have been granted. This follows an article in Daily Maverick that called out the miniscule national rate of refused authorisations (3.5%) for such projects over the last two years.
