Minister heeds community’s call

MOGALAKWENA – The two week long violent protests at Anglo American's Mogalakwena Platinum Mine Northwest of Mokopane ended after mining Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi facilitated a road map to resolve the surrounding communities’ disputes.
Mogalakwena mine said it's platinum production dropped by 8 600 ounces because of disruptive community protests over the last two weeks.
Protestors demanded employment and threatened to continue blocking off access roads to the mine until their demands are met. The protests ended on Saturday after Rama-tlhodi engaged with community leaders, mine management and other important role players at the Leka Lekalakala council chambers. Employees and contractors of the mine returned to work on Saturday.
In a statement issued by the department of mineral resources, the signed road map outlines the following:
Seritarita Secondary School opened on 14 September. All blasting schedules closer to the school must be discussed and agreed upon between community leaders of Leruleng and Scheming and should not interfere with the learning processes;
Agreements entered into between Anglo and the relocated villages must be revisited for the purpose of implementation;
A task team comrising representatives of affected villages must be established and all grievances must be presented to the established team. The 1993 lease agreement between the affected communities and the mine must be revisited by the task team and Anglo Platinum.
Legacy projects that will benefit the communities should be identified. The South African human rights commission will continue to engage representatives of the villages that are not represented to ensure that they join the task team.
The minister urged communities and the mine to work together to ensure the agreed road map to be implemented for peace and sta-bility.