The 51^st anniversary of the Marikana mine massacre will be on the 16^th of August 2018. It serves as a stark reminder that mining is a very dangerous industry to oppose.

A recent study released by Global Witness states (2017) that ?at least 200 people were killed in 24 countries last year in retaliation for standing up to environmentally destructive industrial projects. That?s up from 185 murders in 16 countries in 2015?. Women are increasingly in the firing line, where an activist, Lebogang Ngobeni, from the Fuleni Reserve, in KwaZulu-Natal, received death threats cautioning that she will be killed for appealing a proposed bridge and road development that will open the area to mining.

https://twitter.com/groundWorkSA,( June 2018).

Environmental justice defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency  as: ?the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies?(United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2018).

In South Africa, protectors of environmental justice and social and political change are constantly threatened, ridiculed, marginalised and punished. Situations with regard to the struggle against coal mining and other intrusive development in rural areas have resulted in threats, intimidation and death. People?s houses and cars get set alight. Many have been murdered and the perpetrators get away unapprehended and unpunished.

Dangers of being a defender of environmental justice in South Africa, (30 August 2017).

Activists for social and environmental justice, defend human and environmental rights; they fight for the right to a healthy environment, to clean water, to land and the right to life. Hence, they tend to often clash with political and business interests, with corporations that take over land and natural resources for their own gain. The mining laws of our country make it particularly easy for them to do so (Kyte, 2017). In acting against these powerful forces, we are often subject to the growing list of corporations or governmental departments that have been marginalising defenders and branding their actions as anti-developmental (Ingonyama Trust Board, 2018). Many defenders face years of death threats, criminalisation, intimidation and harassment, but receive little or no protection from authoritative institutions (Kyte, 2017).

Our government, from local to national level, often turns a blind eye to intimidation and lack of compliance with the law (Kyte, 2017). Incredibly, it is the activists themselves who are painted as criminals and receive violent civil cases just to be silenced (Kyte, 2017).

Environmental defenders and environmental justice activists in South Africa make up a dedicated, committed and extremely brave group that is growing (Ledwaba, 2017). And while they are not easily intimidated, whatever intimidation that does come their way only makes them more committed to their cause and plight (Ledwaba, 2017).

Reference list:

The Ingonyama Trust Board. 1994. Legislative and other mandates. [Online]. Available: http://www.ingonyamatrust.org.za/legislative-and-other-mandates/. Accessed: 04 June 2018.

Kyte,. B. 2017. DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH. [Online]. Available:

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defenders-earth/

. July, 13 2017. Accessed: 04 June 2018.

Ledwaba,. L. 2017. Wild Coast anti-mining activist Nonhle Mbuthuma: ?They must kill me alone, not with my family?. [Online]. Available:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-03-27-wild-coast-anti-mining-activist-nonhle-mbuthuma-they-must-kill-me-alone-not-with-my-family/#.WxUsa-6FOUm . . March, 27 2017. Accessed: 04 June 2018.

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Environmental Justice. 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice . May, 28 2018. Accessed: 04 June 2018.