This comes after the Chamber of Mines agreed to postpone its court application following engagements with the presidency. Lawyers for Human Rights is representing the Bakgatla Ba Sefikile and Lesetlheng communities in the North West as well as the Babina Phuthi Ba Ga-Makola and Kgatlu communities in Limpopo in the hearings set to take place from the 19th to the 21st of February 2018. 

Last year November the Pretoria High Court ruled in favour of these mining communities - some who are represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) - to intervene in the Chamber of Mines’ review of the charter. 

Environmental Rights Programme Manager at Lawyers for Human Rights, Michael Clements, told OFM News at the time that the organisations argued that the communities should have been consulted in the drafting of the Charter, because they are most affected by the negative effects of mining. Clements acknowledged that there are provisions for mining communities in the 2017 Charter, but she said the organisations don’t believe they go far enough. According to reports the legal representatives of the mining communities were again excluded from discussions pertaining to the postponement of the review of the Charter. Lawyers for Human Rights told OFM News that court proceedings are currently underway.

In his state of the nation address, last week Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that government has committed to intensify engagements with all stakeholders on the latest version of the Mining Charter. He said, “by working together in a genuine partnership I am certain we will be able to resolve the current impasses and agree on a Charter that both accelerates transformation and grows this vital sector of our economy.”

OFM News