The Voice Of Mining Communities

Together For Fairness

Sekhukhune Combined Mining Affected Communities (SCMAC) is a registered non-profit, grassroots organisation based in Burgersfort, located within the Fetakgomo-Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) of the Limpopo Province. Situated in the mineral-rich Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, this region hosts extensive platinum group mineral (PGM) and strategic minerals for energy transition operations, SCMAC was established to challenge the structural marginalisation experienced by communities affected by mining in Sekhukhune.

The organisation emerged in response to systemic exclusion from key decision-making processes under South Africa’s Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), which prioritises national mineral development but neglects the rights and interests of local, mine-host communities.  A core focus of SCMAC’s advocacy is the flawed implementation of Social and Labour Plans (SLPs), which are legally required to ensure that mining operations contribute to local socio-economic development. Research indicates that mining companies often by-pass genuine community consultation, resulting in projects that fail to address the actual needs of local populations.

SCMAC collaborates with organisations such CALS, LHR, Amnesty international and 350.org. Is a member to the Climate justice coalition and CIVICUS movement to document environmental harm and amplify the voices of those impacted. SCMAC has also played an active role in promoting free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as a necessary principle in mining governance.

The organisation has presented its findings and positions in forums such as the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, arguing that corpo-rate grievance mechanisms are often ineffective and lack legitimacy in the eyes of affected communities. In essence, SCMAC serves as a vital conduit for community mobilisation. By asserting environmental, social, and legal rights, the organisation contributes significantly to the broader struggle for participatory governance and equitable development in South Africa’s mining sector.

The organisation has established a 40-member trained community monitors to document and report violations and social challenges in the community.

To advance a socially and ecologically just society in which our economy is restructured to mitigate and adapt to the Environmental, social and climate crisis, as part of a transformative program to simultaneously eliminate inequality, poverty, unemployment, and the multifaceted experiences of injustice facing mining communities in Sekhukhune, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

The objectives of the SCMAC (To achieve this overall vision of the organisation’s work, we will need to advance on the following overall goals)

  • Promote and defend the environmental, social, climate and human rights of communities both directly and indirectly  affected by  mining;  and  to ensure  they benefit from mining activities in their own land,
  • Contribute to building popular support for a transformative and just transition of communities from an extractive economy to one that is socially and ecologically just and capable of providing decent, meaningful and dignified work for all.
  • Pursue a transformative agenda in rural and mining communities that advances social, climate and environmental justice.
  • Organise towards a just transition to renewable energy that is more socially owned and prioritises the needs of every household and community over profit-making characterised by the current economy that is based on fossil fuels and other harmful and extractive practices.
  • Support visions of community resilience in the face of climate change that promote transparency, democracy, and accountability for climate action through capable and responsive infrastructure, policy, and financing.
  • Access information including information  about mining,  law,  rights,  processes and  impacts and to share and distribute that information amongst  affected communities;
  • Support and assist  community  champions,  community  organisations  and the members of both directly and indirectly affected communities; and to engage all relevant  role players including  government  at regional,  provincial  and national level.
  • Conduct education, research, and capacity strengthening to support movement building as well as the resilience strategies of communities.

The SCMAC organisation is grounded in respect for and the advancement of human rights, equality, dignity, justice and fairness for all. South Africa continues to be built on the dispossession and exploitation of the communities and working class. To work to reverse this, the organisation seeks to capacitate and empower marginalised communities. As we work to build a feminist movement, we also aim to ensure the leadership of women, youth and those who have been historically and purposely excluded.

We are committed to building an organisation that advances radical and sustainable solutions to climate, environment and social crisis. To ensure the kind of social transformation we envisage will require a strong, vibrant, and diverse movement.

Values

  • A vision for climate justice that advances environmental, energy, youth, gender, racial, immigrant, social and economic justice together.
  • Respect for human rights, equality, dignity, justice and fairness
  • Strategies and processes that advance equal access to socio-economic and environmental rights and economic redistribution.
  • Commitment to equal access to, and progressive realisation and protection of socio-economic and environmental rights.
  • We are committed to feminist, decolonial, and anti-racist theory and practice.
  • We recognise the importance of having accountable leadership that guides and drives forward the coalition. As such, we have an elected secretariat and Steering Committee. However, we value decentralised and bottom-up processes where members can also take the lead on and feel ownership of the coalition and its work.
  • Respect the multiplicity of organisational approaches to achieving transformation socio-economic change in South Africa. Take cognisance of voice and power in the context of our history.