As the world anticipates the International Social Justice day on 20 February, social justice organisations and projects with similar interest outline this subject in mining towns such as Delmas.
Since the United Nations (UN) formally launched World Day of Social Justice in 2009, world governments are expected to address social justice issues. Furthermore, social justice affects every individual or businesses as it entails equal access to wealth, resources and opportunities in society. The Harambee Social Justice Project (HSJP,) launched in Delmas in August 2020, aims to make its contribution by bringing programmes and activities to impoverished areas in South African Mining Communities.
According to HSJP Founder and Executive member, Barney Andrews, as mining is one of the key economic drivers to the South African Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the economic benefit sadly does not filter through to local communities who suffers most from the environmental health matters that plagues their communities, and neither does the towns around these areas reflect the wealth that is being mined and created for other economies.
“Our purpose is to highlight these matters through the community information engagements sessions to empower communities with the appropriate knowledge and how to tackle these matters – Community, Government and Mine or applicable sector,” said Andrews.
A potent and factor superlative factor in Delmas is the air and road quality severely impacted by the coal mines – Powered Industry and Sector as well as the Road Freight Industry that are rendering most of the roads almost un-driveable. Delmas is also one of the poorest socio-economic communities thus the community has been triple impacted by air pollution, poor road infrastructure and poverty – as a lot of the income generated in Delmas flow out of the community. The HSJP said they would like to change this narrative about Delmas, “We would like to change, in particular, the latter statement to ensure that much of the economic spin-offs remain in Delmas by capacitating communities with the requisite skills to service the local industry.”
By the end of the 2021 World Day of Social Justice HSJP further plans to plant the seed that will set the tone for the next 3-5 years for all different sectors of the community to benefit, socially and economically.
The Mineral Council of South Africa pledged to play a key role on social justice by supporting efforts to fight Gender Based Violence and Femicide recently at a fundraising event hosted by President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure the active participation and financial investment of the private and philanthropic sectors to address gender- based violence and femicide (GBVF) in South Africa. “We believe that it is our duty to inform, educate and act not only on incidents within our mines, but also beyond our mine gates a vital link in the chain to stop abuse,” said Nolitha Fakude, Vice President and based Chair of the Women in Mining Forum who was representing the Minerals Council at the event.
