'Mine took my fields for R5000'

She lost her ploughing fields to a mining company for R5250.

Now 96-year-old Raesetja Magongoa from GaMagongoa village in Mokopane, Limpopo, wants answers from Platreef Resources, the company which she claims seized her fields.

People from more than 15 Mokopane villages are expected to march to the Platreef offices today to submit a memorandum of demands.

This will be one of numerous attempts by the community to have the mining project set aside on the grounds that they were never consulted.

"They gave us R5250 and now our fields have been taken away. These people are starving us. They took our fields but they don't want to explain how we are going to benefit. This was my children's inheritance but now I have nothing to leave them," said Magongoa.

Ivanhoe Mines owns 64% of the Platreef project while 10% is owned by a Japanese consortium. The remaining 26% shareholding forms part of the dispute by the community, who want a stake in the operations.

David Maruma of the Mokopane Interested and Affected Community Development Forum (MIACDF) said the company never met conditions supposed to benefit the community.

MIACDF represents the interests of more than 30 organisations in the area.

Maruma said they demanded to see a copy of the social labour plan, 26% in shares as well as a long-lease agreement.

"Instead of the mining bringing development, it has brought poverty. There is no way people can benefit if they are not part of these processes," he said.

Though previous marches have resulted in heated confrontations with police, Maruma promised today's action would be peaceful.

Last year Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) submitted an appeal to Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi, asking him to set aside the company's mining rights.

In its submission LHR warned that families would would not be able to plough their fields and graze their cattle. It also stated that heritage sites and 154 graves would be destroyed.

LHR submitted that the consultation process was flawed as the community had never been privy to important information.

Meanwhile, the company has started erecting a fence around the fields. Company vans can be seen driving around the village.

Magongoa and the other villagers fear that they will no longer be allowed access to the land.

"If it was not for my old age, I would also go and march. I want to ask who they consulted about their mining," she said.