Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe was forced to call off a planned meeting with the community of Qokolweni in Mthatha on Thursday after a “briefing” between the minister, community leaders and a company that mines in one of the villages under Qokolweni deadlocked.
Mantashe spent more than five hours locked in a “hotly-contested meeting” behind closed doors with leaders of the people of Qokolweni and the mining company.
At the time of writing, the meeting was still ongoing and it was not clear what time it would finish.
Neither the minister nor the residents or the company could be reached for comment at the time of writing on Thursday, as they were still locked in a meeting after 2pm.
One of the residents who was looking forward to being addressed by Mantashe was Mzwandile Mkhupha, who claimed company bosses had failed to uphold their promises to the community when they were allowed to mine on their land.
Mkhupha said he was very disappointed that the minister had sent community leaders to a tent set up next to the quarry to inform them of the cancellation of the meeting with them.
“We are not happy that the minister did not come in person,” he said.
He said they had invited Mantashe to the village to intervene in the stand-off between the community and the company running mining operations on their land.
Although Mkhupha could not recall the exact year the company had started operating, a few other residents told the Daily Dispatch that a company called Cannosia had been mining crushed stone in Qokolweni since 2013.
Although they did not give their names, they claimed the community had been promised a percentage of the profits but that the company had allegedly failed to stick to its end of its bargain. They claimed they were also promised jobs for their children...