|
?:abstract
|
-
"Mbizana, in Pondoland, along South Africa’s Wild Coast, is at the centre of a struggle
between local residents, a multi-national mining company and the South African
Government. In 2007 the local residents formed the AmaDiba Crisis Committee (ACC) in
opposition to a government-supported proposal by Mineral Commodities Ltd, an
Australian company, to mine their communal land. According to the ACC, the mining
company and the government had violated established democratic processes and
undermined the local villagers’ control over their communal land. In 2008, a mining
licence was granted by Government, however, in 2011, after protests and petitions by the
ACC to Government, the Minister of Mineral Resources revoked the licence. The mining
company’s response was to submit a new application for prospecting rights. In public
demonstrations against the mining of their land, the protesters have made reference to the
well-known Mpondo Revolt3 of 1959-1960; and, in interviews they have also mentioned
resistance to the Mbizana sugar project in 1985-86 and the Gum Tree Rebellion in 1999.
These references locate their struggle to retain the right to decide how best to develop
their land in a history of resistance that started in the era of Apartheid, and has continued
under the new democratic dispensation. At the heart of the activism is a collective
consciousness that is best conceptualised as collective agency. This paper focuses on
current resistance to imposed development, and its connections to past resistance,
especially the Mpondo Revolt of 50 years ago. I argue that, contrary to popular
perception, rural people of Pondoland have a long history of resisting imposed
development and actively participating in their own development." (author's abstract)
(xsd:string)
|
![[This page as RDF]](https://data.gesis.org/gesiskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}