S. Africa Mine Communities Ignored in Design of Social Plans
- Communities should have right to veto mines, group says
- Mining companies often don’t honor commmitments: legal center
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When companies design development programs for areas near their operations in South Africa that are required to win government approval for licenses, local communities are often not consulted and have no right to veto the mines, according to a group that’s lobbying for stronger regulation.
In five case studies of mines ranging from platinum and coal extraction to clay, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, based at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, found that most communities were unaware of the commitments companies made in the social and labor plans and in almost all cases those promises weren’t fulfilled.