Let me tell you a story about a place. This place is close to home called Madinyane. My family has had a farm there since before I was born, I grew up going there, helping out with the work sometimes, it was a great place to go for the school holidays. This place is home to many farming families, it has a lot of history... Families that live there depend on their land as it is their livelihood, not only is it their source of income, but for many its is their primary source of food... the soil is rich, produces really good pastures for livestock. This place also has some wildlife, we sometimes see buck running around, the occasional snake here and there, but its beautiful... About, two years a mining company discovered that there are ferrochrome deposits below most of this area. Ferrochrome is one of the biggest mineral exports in South Africa. A mine in Brits (about 20km from Madinyane), is one of the largest producer in the world. The bushveld complex, of which Brits and Madinyane are found in, has the largest chrome ore deposits on Earth. So this mining company wants to displace hundreds of people from Madinyane, promising royalties, a relocation to land as good as this one. The community has been fighting, saying no to these prospectors. This is where generations of families have lives, they are buried there, the land is part of who they are. Unfortunately in the past few years, Madinyane has been hit by droughts. For people who depend on rain to have a successful crop, its been hard. Black frost in the winters have not helped either. Its been bare for a long time. Bare fields have meant starvation, no income, many of their cattle and goats have been dying from hunger, from thirst. Its been two years, and the mines are still persistent, they have time and money to wait as long as they have to. While the people of Madinyane give in one by one because they need the money to support their children, grandchildren, to be able to feed their livestock, to be able to farm again... When finally the last person decides to take the offer from the mines, it will be a sad day for Madinyane. But what can you do?
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:49:37 +0000
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