Vocal women believe they are targeted because of their gender.
By Zodidi Mhlana
news@alexreporter.co.za
Two years after environmental and mining rights activist, Fikile Ntshangase was assassinated in Mfolozi, women in her community said they felt vulnerable, exposed and fearing the very same violence that took her life would end theirs.
The controversy surrounding the Tendele Coal Mine in Somkhele, close to Mtubatuba, has torn apart the formerly cohesive community, leaving the women previously at the forefront of the opposition to the expansion of the coal mine fearful.
Several women spoke anonymously during our visit to the affected villages, fearing the risks of reprisals.
Since 2013, *Noma Sithole based in Ophondweni village has taken part in meetings regarding the relocation of over 20 households from their ancestral lands owing to the expansion of the coal mine in Somkhele.
Sithole has always been opposed to the relocation of families from the onset.
She said the tension has split the community between those in favour of the mine and those opposed to its expansion.
According to her, threats of violence and fights at these meetings had prompted her to stay away from them.
“Someone was nearly killed in the last meeting I attended, people were just quarrelling during that meeting,” said Sithole.
In addition to conflicts, people, especially women opposed to the mine expansion, were being silenced at these mine meetings.
“There was much space to speak freely, as I felt silenced. We ended up not seeing eye to eye,” she said.
Sithole, who was close with the murdered Ntshangase, is convinced that her opposition to the expansion of the mine resulted in the murder.
“uMama Nthsangase died as a result of the mine conflict. I was not born yesterday. It’s clear that her death was caused by these mining fights. I have no doubt her killing was related to mining,” she said.
Sithole said she collaborated with Ntshangase and other community members to recruit a lawyer to represent them to oppose the mine expansion.
Environmental activists targeted in mine violence
Ntshangase was not the only woman in Mfolozi to be targeted in violence.
In April 2020, an elderly woman,Tholakele Mthethwa, had 19 shots fired at her yard.
The 2019 Global Witness report showed an increase in deadly violent attacks against environmental and mining rights activists across the globe, with 212 activists killed that year.
The report stated that over 1 in 10 defenders killed were women and further said women vocal on these mining and land rights issues were often targeted.
“Women who act and speak out may also face gender-specific threats, including sexual violence. If other members of their household are defenders, they can become targeted too,” stated the report.
The 2020, IUCN’s Gender based Violence and Environmental linkages: the violence of inequality report found that gendered based attacks and harassment are employed to bar women from exercising their rights over the use of resources.
It further said violence against women could be used to “enforce land and property grabbing” from women and to extort them when they aim to secure it, hindering economic opportunities and the means to abandon abusive relations.
According to the report, the attacks were on the rise and aimed to “discourage and silence” women as they lead in the protection of their environment from environmental threats.
It said human rights defenders were subjected to threats of violence, rape, intimidation, and acts of misogyny.
Sithole said although her family was not initially intended to move to a different location due to the mine expansion, things changed.
“When my children discovered that we would have to relocate, I was not worried because I told myself that no one is going to move us,” Sithole recalled.
“They will remove me over my dead body,” she vowed.
Ntshangase, 65, was shot and killed in October 2020 by five gunmen while serving as the deputy chair of the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organization (MCEJO).
Since then, no arrests have been made in connection with the shooting. Last month community members held a march expressing frustrations with the police’s failure to make arrests.
Nonhle Mbuthuma from the Amadiba Crisis Committee said the intimidation, harassment, and violence aimed at women in communities involved in mining conflicts was “common.”
The women in communities that are in conflict with mining companies were worried about the protection of their ancestral lands and were not interested in engaging in negotiations with the mining corporations.
She added that because they were seen as “troublesome,” women in her neighbourhood were occasionally excluded from meetings regarding the mining developments.
Mbuthuma also said that in conflict-ridden mining communities, threats and harassment against women were not only prevalent in the communities but also on social media.
“The bullying, intimidation and violent threats are also taking place on social media platforms. The demeaning is at another level,” Mbuthuma said.
The patriarchy in mining is a real issue and it results in violence and bullying toward women, Mbuthuma believes.
“The intimidation happening to women in Ophondweni is something we know very well as women from Xolobeni as we have been subjected to it.”
Bullying, pressure on relocated families
It was not just the families and women who were threatened to relocate that had negative things to say about the coal mine; those who agreed to be moved also spoke about being bullied, treated with arrogance, and threatened into relocating.
A woman in her mid-40s who works in the area where her family was relocated as a result of the mine shared that her family was subjected to bullying and pressure to move from one hamlet to another.
“When they want you to move, you will move, they have these demands, whatever that they do, there are demands,” she told us outside her workplace.
According to her, the mining firm, together with threats and bullying aimed at specific families, has made life in this neighbourhood challenging.
“If they tell you that they can offer a certain amount of money and you ask for more money, they will not give you many options but you will be pressured to accept whatever they give you,” she said.
Her family was offered a non-negotiable compensation amount of R60 000, which they felt they were pushed into a corner to accept. The houses have started having cracks as a result of the blasting activities from the mine.
“They built very small houses for the people they moved. If you had a bigger house, you would find yourself living in a small house because of them,” she said.
There was also no development in the community since the mine came to the area and locals were also not given employment opportunities as promised.
This story was made possible with support from the Internew’s INSPIRES project.