Pretoria - Residents in region seven which is in the east of Tshwane embarked on a “peaceful” march to Tshwane House to voice their concerns over the City of Tshwane’s lack of intervention in their struggle to benefit from the mines operating on their land.
Unemployed youth and residents of Zithobeni, Rethabiseng, Ekangala, Sokhulumi and the farming community were mobilised to take part in the march.
They gathered in the morning at an open space on Kgosi Mampuru Street before they departed to Tshwane House while escorted by the metro police.
Motorists in the inner-city were inconvenienced as traffic flow was negatively affected on Kgosi Mampuru Street, Sophie De Bruyn Street, Bosman Street, Paul Kruger Street and Thabo Sehume Street.
At Tshwane House, marchers handed over a memorandum of understanding to Finance MMC Peter Sutton, who promised to respond to their issues very soon.
The memorandum, in part, demanded that the municipality’s Department of Economic Development and Spatial Planning must recognise the existence of a regional mining committee, which was elected by residents from different wards in region seven.
Regional mining committee secretary general, Joseph Motaung, told the Pretoria News that for the past seven months they have been sent from pillar to post by municipal officials whenever they go to the municipality to demand the recognition of their structure.
“We are not getting any assistance and we took a decision to report the officials to their superiors. They are dilly-dallying and telling us about the policies,” he said.
He said that as soon as the committee was endorsed by the municipality it would be in a position to compel the mines to take up their social responsibility in communities.
“The regional mining committee has a mandate to have all the mining houses with public involvement in their recruitment drives. All the mines in our areas have a large number of their workforce coming from outside,” Motaung said.
He said the committee was calling for the establishment of a TVET college that would focus on developing mining skills among the locals to enable them to have access to the mines.
“We have a shortage of skills in our region and there is no further education training institution in region seven. We have about ten mines in our region where if any specialised skill vacancy is available they have to outsource people from outside,” he said.
The region, he said, has four quarry mines, six coal mines and a diamond mine.
Motaung said residents wanted the mines to contribute to the community’s established trust fund that would be used to address the socio-economic problems of hunger, poverty and inequality.
“We are experiencing a very big challenge like the orphanage homes that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic not having food to feed the hungry and many children in our region are going to school without shoes,” Motaung said.
Marchers also wanted to have a symposium, which would be used as a platform to have formal engagements with all mining houses.
“The mining houses have been given permits to operate in our area and they have not conducted road shows and have no empowerment programmes for communities,” he said.
According to him, communities have previously vented their frustration with the mines by taking to the street against the treatment of mines.
“At each and every protest police are called in to shoot at the aggrieved residents,” he said.
Pretoria News