History Of Macua
About Macua
Since its inception in 2012, Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA) has presented a formidable point of alternative power against the toxic and exploitative alliance formed between mining companies and the government in South Africa.
In the movement’s young history, MACUA has played a significant role in starting to re- imagine the country’s mining sector. From the time of its formation, MACUA has consistently put forward a people`s centered form of power, which aims to end the centuries of exploitation and colonial dispossession of our land and minerals.
About Macua
The Peoples Mining Charter, which was developed after extensive consultation with over 150 mining affected communities and various civil society organisations, has been the cornerstone around which MACUA has set out to liberate mining affected communities from the oppressive yoke of exploitative and destructive resource extraction.
Mining affected communities through the ages
The South African mining sector has symbolized and epitomised the exploitation, expropriation, discrimination, migrant labour systems and environmental degradation commonly associated with the worst evils of Apartheid.
The historical underdevelopment of Black communities was central to the project by mining conglomerates, who were aided and abetted by the Colonial and Apartheid states, of accumulating wealth for a minority elite through super mining profits.
The commercial explosion of mining during the late 19th century saw the South African economy emerge from the relative obscurity of an agricultural economy, to one of the leading producers of Gold in the world. The relatively sudden access to vast pools of wealth for the national economy, established the dominant role of mining companies in the political economy of South Africa.
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Land expropriation and the 1913 Land Act which forced people off their land was driven in part by the economic needs of the large mining barons. This Mass dispossession of the indigenous communities reduced the peasant populations, who survived off the bounty of the earth, by over 50% between 1936 and 1946, while simultaneously providing cheap Black mine labour to the Mining Barons who reaped enormous profits from our land and our labour.
By 1948, the Apartheid government controlled the daily aspects of Black life. Communities were denied basic services such as health or electricity, while slave wages burdened mine-workers`s families, mainly women, with the costs of producing more labour for the mine and for caring for the sick an injured who were systematically spat out from the mining system.
The disenfranchisement of black communities was worsened by the stagnation in mining wages until the 1970’s. Wages went towards daily living costs instead of profitable agricultural production in homelands. The systematic underdevelopment of mining areas in collusion with mining companies highlights the structural limitations placed on the agency and self-reliance of Black communities.
In a democratic South Africa, post-Apartheid legislation did not fundamentally address the systematic impoverishment of the black majority and has instead continued the legacy of colonial dispossession.
Acknowledging the significance of the mining sector, the Minerals and Petroleum Resources and Development Act (MPRDA) was passed in 2002 to “make provision for equitable access to and sustainable development of the nation’s mineral and petroleum resources”.
The promised redistribution of wealth and access to resources promised in the MPRDA is designed to be achieved through the Mining Charter, which is modeled on a failed policy of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment, which has only succeeded in enriching a small elite of politically connected individuals. The few mechanisms for redress and empowerment such as the Social and Labour Plan (SLP) which obligates companies to contribute towards the development of affected communities has failed to improve the lives of affected communities.
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However, by placing custodianship of natural resources under the state, and where the state has used this custodianship to enrich a connected elite and where the benefits of the country’s mineral endowments have not trickled down to the masses of people who have become increasingly impoverished, the act is in conflict with the goals and ideals of the Freedom Charter of the antiApartheid struggle which explicitly promised that ; “the people shall govern!” and that “the people shall share in the country`s wealth” (Congress of the People, 1955).
The act actively works to suppress the voice of communities by relegating those affected to passive subjects.
The post 1994 Minerals Regime has subsequently strengthened the voice of Capital within the corridors of legislative, policy and regulatory power, while the voice of mining affected communities has been silenced through various restrictions within the MPRDA and other supporting legislation such as the Traditional Leadership and Khoisan Bill and the Traditional Courts Bill.
The 16th of August 2012 marked the brutal killing of 34 striking miners by police at Lonmin’s Marikana site in the North West Province of South Africa, highlighting the unchanging exploitative relationship between mining companies, their employees and the communities they inhabit.
The massacre highlighted the ultimate lie of redistribution promised in the Constitution and the MPRDA. The prioritisation of company’s interest’s over communities is deeply entrenched in the sector and continues to not only limit the channels that communities have in finding justice but also entrenches their oppression.
Amidst successive governments, fluctuating economies and erratic commodity prices, communities remain the disproportionate bearers of the negative impacts of mining with none of the benefits.
“We wanted to be able to lead issues as communities without being represented by others. We wanted to represent ourselves”
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The relationship between mining communities and mines have left communities disenfranchised and denied the opportunity to act on its agency in formulating their own development paths.
MACUA’s immutable call for “nothing about us without us” has garnered substantial support in uniting mine-affected communities in South Africa. The demand is simple, to be included as a legitimate voice in decisions that directly affect communities at risk.
For a movement as young as MACUA, we have achieved a considerable amount. From reaching out and mobilising grassroot struggles, to being recognised by the Pressdeint of the Country who refered to mining communities using our slogan “nothing about us without us” at his inaugural State of the Nation Address in February 2018.
Formation of a Movement
The formation of the movement was inspired by the events of the Marikana Massacre in August 2012. Between the 2nd – 5th of December 2012, the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IANRA) hosted the South Africa Mining Communities and Allies Dialogue.
150 community delegates and civil society representatives from 8 provinces across South Africa gathered to discuss the struggles of mining-affected communities. Civil society was represented in the form of ActionAid South Africa, Benchmarks, IANRA as well as academic representatives.
Members of the workshop agreed to discuss the items below as critical aspects of the movement. The space allowed for community representatives to provide detailed report backs of concerns facing mining-affected areas across the country setting the precedent for the bottom-up approach adopted by the movement.
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Despite the geographical spread of communities represented, the challenges facing those affected by mining were glaringly similar. Communities across the nation had no voice, no agency and no opportunity to participate in the decisions that affected them. Whether at a macro level when engaging with the government, or at a micro level when being sidelined by mining companies in their backyard, communities were being systemically and physically excluded.
Resolutions of the meeting were driven by the need to establish a radical challenge to existing power structures; “we are talking about building new forms of power that are necessary, power located in well organised and well-connected community organisations so that becomes a form of power to connect community-based struggles to the need for change at the other levels of our society.”
The collective ambition of structural, bottom-up change through grassroot struggles, has been a critical founding stone of the movement. In formulating resolutions, a focus on power centered the discussions on the importance of strategic mobilisation through ideological positioning and establishing the movement’s values and ethics.
More than a slogan; “nothing about us without us”, has symbolised an ideology that in its simplicity, appeals to the essence of different geographic and contextual community struggles.
The utilization of NGO’s, Public Interest Law Organisations and academics were noted as key resources but maintaining a community lead project was a decisive factor.
With practical resolutions emerging from the conference focusing on a review of the MPRDA, the Mining Charter and principles of Free Prior and Informed Consent, MACUA has managed to gain substantial wins.
The successes of MACUA and WAMUA are testament to the types of mobilisation and awareness they have created in local communities through the dedicated efforts of provincial coordinators, NGOs and civil society.
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Women in the Movement
Despite immense successes in mobilising and, conscientising communities to challenge power, there remains pressing difficulties in the gender dynamics of the society. At the first meeting in December 2012, the gendered impacts of mining were made clear in the report backs of local communities. The distribution of the risks, costs and benefits of mining are skewed in terms of gender against women.
Mining Communities And Allies Dialogue Collective Agenda
1) State of Community organisations
2) Women in Organisation
3) Advocacy, Campaigns, Policy & Legislation and Academics
4) Solidarity and common goals
5) State of the nation
In responding to the disproportionate impacts on women in mining affected areas it was proclaimed that, “women don’t have the power to say anything. According to our traditional custom we women must always listen to men” The need for women to self-organise as a targeted response to the gendered impacts of mining lead to the realisation of WAMUA (Women affected by Mining United in Action).
WAMUA presents a critical channel through which to address patriarchy not only within the mining sector, related policies and practices, but within MACUA and communities, they represent as well.
The challenge remains immense, “gender-specific aspects of discrimination are often indiscernible because of the pervasive culture of patriarchy and women’s oppression in everyday South Africa. The consequence of which is that women are locked further and more deeply into systems that engineer rights violations and cycles that reproduce and entrench gender inequality”.
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Events focusing on building the capacity and agency of women have remained a key priority for the movement over the years. These events, processes and internalisation of women`s issues into the mainstream of the movement, has helped to grow strong women needed to raise concerns in their own communities with the confidence to stand up to ward councilors and tribal leaders.
These include WAMUA`s Leadership Schools for women and Gender Sensitisation Workshops. Women have shown that through the unflinching commitment by the movement to non-sexists values, that they now have the “courage” to lay complaints as well as voice concerns internally, where they would not have done so before.
This has been attributed to consistent collective capacity building efforts between both women and men. The Gender Sensitisation workshop included a men’s session in August 2015. A particular view at the workshop was “I can’t imagine myself being led by a woman. Women like to take advantage of us.”
The gender specific impacts of mining have reflected in the expansion of concerns in women’s only groups and a deep analysis of the interconnections between mining and daily struggles of women.
“There are challenges that women face in their own communities. Not only mining, there are still life challenges. This is what, if we are on our own, we can achieve. We will come with different challenges with different provinces and communities”.
The Greater Phola and Ogies Women’s Forum in Mpumalanga began addressing concerns of violence against women and sex work that was prevalent in their communities. Cases of harassment as well as drug abuse exponentially increased with the influx of migrant labour with the establishment of a new mine.
WAMUA presents a wholistic and humanist perspective on the struggles on mine affected communities. The voices of men who are ready to take action against patriarchy within and outside of the movement need to be amplified alongside the women. As claimed by a fellow MACUA member “up until we can address this, whatever we are doing, it will be undermined by patriarchy.”
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Solidarity in Ideology
“We need to have a unifying front or some sort of formation that brings all of us together that are affected by mining, extractive industries and related struggles. Connected to this, we need a way of understanding unity in relation to organising ourselves which enables us to put communities first, and to get beyond some of the political divisions that are sometimes ideological, sometimes connected to position or patronage, or to other issues that tend to divide and/or create factions amongst us”.
The need for a unified front in the movement was clear from the first gathering of mining affected communities and allies. The spirit of this has guided actions on the ground and built a unique movement, whose strength lies in the simplicity of its message “nothing about us without us”. This has appealed to communities across South Africa, whether mining is wanted or not. What is not unique, are the impacts of mining.
The organising strategy of MACUA was to co-ordinate around the point of commonality of all communities near mining. According to one of the provincial coordinators “the message was to relate the struggles of each community to other communities.” Through mobilisation and communication, the provincial coordinators were able to connect a national perspective on the impacts of mining to local communities.
More importantly, the shared experiences emphasised that individual community struggles was not an isolated struggle. Instead our struggles were the same for all those facing mining. The spirit of Marikana has continued to guide the movement.
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