I

Supplement to MAIL & GUABDIAN

November 1995 ffi$ffiffiffiw ffiffiffiffiffiffi 3

Joint verrtures for

A radical new proposalfor
St Luc ia oca
St Lucia recommends
giving part ownership of a
mining operation to rural
people living in the area.
Eddie Koch reports
NEW study that will
shape the Cabinet's
decision on how to han-
dle South Africa's
envirorurrental
dispute to mine thebeach
-whether
sands of St Lucia, or use the coastai
dunes lbr tourism
- is sure to stoke
up heated debates when it is tabled Damage done: The kind of mining operation that HBM has proposed
at a conference next week. for the Eastern Shores of St Lucia
While the study criticises existing
pians to strip-mine the dune forest
for heavy metals, it contains novel
proposals t.o set up a company that
will $ve part ownership of a mining
operation to rural people livingin the
area. The profits will be used to cre-
atewidlife tourism projects and other
development programmes in the
re$on around Stlucia.
Representatives from a mrmber of
rival organisations involved in the
conkoversy including the Richards
Bay Minerals
- BeM mining corpora-
tion, the Natal Parks Board, the
KwaZr-rlu-Natal govemment and n-ual
communities claiming tifle to the pro-
posed mining area will gather next
week at a seminar- in the St Lucia
Natrrre Rese.rve to discuss a series of
controversial research reports on the
economic fufure of the area. A lesser evil? lf tourism development is chosen instead of mining, the
'The main dillerence between this expected increase in visitors could leave the Eastern Shores as
study and previous academic work overcrowded as Sodwana Bay
on the issue is thatwe are looking at
an holistic development prograrnme trates that ecotourism hae the poten- perity to lhe region's inlrabitanr-s I-,1,
forthe entire re$on around St Lucia, tial to act as a lon{-term lead sector co-oDerating rather than comnetino
 of the re$onal economy. hoblems the LAPC h^" a"n.o"l"'lritoltT
rather than a narro\M environrnental
impact assessment on what mining emcrge as to how to linance the ini- -study that argues vehemently
will do to a small stretch of dunes on lialstages while the ecotourisn:r against mining, on the g;ounds that
the Eastern Shores of the estuary," indusky develops. this r,vill scare off investors and visi-
says David Cooper, director of Lhe "Miningprovides an opportunity to tors interested in the region's
Land and Agicultrual Policy Centre generate the capital required to rein- tourism potential.
[,APC) in Johanncsbt trg. vest back into tourism ... The ques- The draft LAPC report recom-
"We are hoping i1 will lead to a tion is not a choice between the huo, mends that the Cabinet take into
development plan that can have an On the recovery: Dunes that have been mined in the process ol being but rather a rational assessment of account the following criticisms of
impact on the huge lerzeJs of poverty rehabilitated. A cover crop of cereals is sown on the topsoil and what mixes and compromises are RBM's miningplars:
in the region, by making best use of windbreaks erected. The cereals die within one year and natural required to kick-start development in O The mine, expected to last no
economic options that have so far vegetation regenerates from seed in the topsoil the sub-re$on." longer.than 15 years, creates a "rape
been presented in opposition to each The report's recommendations and escape" prospect in which peo-
other. There is a strong emphasis on the Eastem Shores ol'[,rtl<c Sl Lucia. headed by.hrdgc Il I-eon and set up emphasise the need for joint ven- ple lace mass retrenchments and a
providing local people, who are the The proposal carrsul ir litrore in local by the formcr- grvernment to exam- tures between local communities. l)ight of capital once the mjnerals
custodians of the region's natural and intemational cnvironmenta-l cir- ine lhc ('nvironmental impact the private sector and the state that havc been exhausted.
resources, with benelits ald com- clcs rnainly because the strip-min- asscsslrrt'r rt.'['he reviewpanel, which promote co-ordinated mining ancl O RBM's proposals ofl'ers little
pensation for removals they under- ing -operirtion will run through a ftr i lt:r l l o nclude nrral people frorn thc
i tourism ventures^ while the rural more than lower-order manual jobs
went in the apartheid years." nafure reserve z,md an intricate set of people beneflt by having a share in
sr rrrrlrnding areas, argued tl-rat min- to the inhabitants of the regon. The
The new stucty and the outcome of ecosystems based on the wetlands new companies that are set up
ing sl.ror-rld not be allowed to go ahe;rd company has not erplored partr-rer-
the conference, organised by the around lhe dunes.
-
lrt:cause it would disturb Sl Lucia's instead of bt:ing ernployed only as ships and joint rrentures that could
IAPC at the request of land Affairs The LAPC's latest intervention lbl- turique "sense of place". labourers in these enterprise's. stimulate meaningful nrral develoit-
Minister Derek Hanekom, will have a lows an environmental imptrct Says the draf.t LAPC rcport, pre- The reports says mining will not ment.
direct impact on govemment poliry assessment that v,'as conductecl by pared by consultanl Julian Baskin: destroy the natural heritage for O Allhotrgh a hear,y-metals mine
aboul how to handle a clebate that the Council fcrr Scientific ar-rd lndus- "Given the high lcvels of poverty in luture generations, as suggested by will create n significant number of
has dogged the govemment for more trial Research, at the cost of somt: the tllabisa district [the broacler Judge kon's review panel. Mining stxh jobs. these will have a relatively
than six years and effectivelyblocked R6-million. It was roundly criticised regiorl around St Ltrcial, it is will haye alimitedimpact on thewet- small irnpact on the widespread
any development in the economically because it failed to address properly arguable that ... the problem should lands around the St Lucia eslrrary unemployment in the area. "Apart
depressed area aror.rnd St Lucia. the views o[ rural communities be redefined to answer the question: and RBM has shown an abilily to {iom emplnyment and corporate
The controversy began in 1989 whose livelihoods are likely to be howcan the nah.ral resources of the rehabilitate the dunes onr:e it h:rs social invesfinent spending, there is
when Richards BayMinerals applied aflected by any econonlic pro- region be utilised in a manner that mined them. little guarantee that mining in isoia-
to the govemmcnt for a mining lease gramme planned for the region. brings tangible and sustainable Although thc report suggests that tion will break the rycles of poverg in
that would allow it to extracl heavy The new study a.lso differs with the der,'elopment to the sub-re$on? miningand wildlife tourism can exist which the community is presently
metals fbr.rnd in the dunc sancls on findings of a public review panel, "The research undertaken illus- side by side bringmg some pros- trapped," it states.
-

ooa antd for
Eddie Koch
SouthAfrica's last sur-
-l OIre ofBushmen
\"i"i"g are claiming
\Juna in the Kalahari Gemsbok
Park fiom whlch they were evicted
during in the l950s
- and they
may end up runnlngJoint touriem
projects with the National Parks
Board ln the game resereG.
At least two groups of Bushmen
(also caled San or Khol Khot), made
up of about 200 people, will submit
a formal claim tn terms of the gorr-
ernment's laad restltutloa pro-
the C"ernsbok Park also slnlrnhg land ln parts of
-theisGemsbok.Park.
Land Affairs Mlnister Derek
Bushmen and the Miercommunity,
and then sharing the benetits."
According to an international
Hanekom visited some of these organlsatlon called Survival for
Eramme. But they hope to settle "Between the 195Os and the groups during a tour of the reglon Tribal Peoples, two anthropologists
the dispute wlthout ending up ln 197Os, however, lndtvtdual famtltes thls month and promised to try to have collected family trees which
were evicted from the area by the settle their dlsputes.
the Lsnd Clatms Court.
Accordlng to Louis Llebenberg, park wardens for reasons that Says Liebenberg, who accompa-
prove that the last surviving Bush-
men clans in the Cape are descen-
author of two books on Bushman ranged from illegal poaching to nled Hanekom on his trip: "The dants of the original tnhabitants of
culture, tle l&lahari Gemsbok Park drunken and disorderly behaviour. parts board should take moral the Kalahari Cremsbot Park's south-
was proclaimed ln 1936 and the Their strongest tegal claim to the responsibility for tbe plig[t of the.se
Bushmen clans were allowed to live land ls that these evictions groups and reach a negotlated set-
ern sections.
the la5gest edstlng band, a group
in the reselve. involved a clear breach of trust tlement with them. It appears that of about 3O people, live on a game
"There was a declsion at Cablnet betweea the parks board and the the agrtcultural potential ofthe land ranch called the lIagga Ilama in the
level and by the leadership of the Bushmen." is not very htglr and that tourism ls northern Ccdarberg reglon of North
Natlonal Parks Board that these Another gmup of lndigenous peo- the beet development op6on. West Prwince. Slnce the mid-1980s
people be allowed to stay ln the ple Mler community, whlch "Thls opens up the posslbtlity of they have b6e1 mating a livingby
- the from
park and the board agreed to act as descende slaves freed in the creatlng Jolnt-venture proJects performing for tourists and acting ln
thclr custodlans," says llebenbeqg. Cape Colony dud4 the late l8(X)s involving the parts board, the fihs and fV advertiscments.