Democracy, development and chieftaincy along South Africa's ‘Platinum Highway’: some emerging issues

ABSTRACT

South Africa's ‘Platinum Highway’ (Generally referred to as ‘the platinum belt’.) – ‘a 150 km continuation of platinum group metals (PGM)-bearing reefs’ [Havenstein, R. (2004). “The Platinum Highway – Where Does It Lead?” Accessed May 10, 2011. http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/The_Platinum_Highway-where_does_it.pdf, 1] – has ushered in a new era of considerable accumulation of mineral revenues by a few traditional authorities on whose communal lands platinum ore is extracted. The Royal Bafokeng community in the North West province stands as an epitome of this phenomenon. However, not much is known about the relationships at local governance level, particularly the interface of mineral wealth and community development. Adopting the Bafokeng community as an empirical case in this article, I argue that, despite some observed benefits, vast mineral wealth is likely to deepen tensions between local power holders within the sphere of rural local governance, thus paradoxically hampering development, particularly in a context where traditional authorities are the architects and champions of resource-engendered community development.

KEYWORDS:

• Traditional authority
• platinum revenues
• development
• local governance
• relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Sonwabile Mnwana holds a PhD in Social Sciences. He specialises in the area of large scale extractive industries and rural social change. He is a Researcher, Mining and Rural Transformation in Southern Africa (MARTISA) project, Society Work and Development Institute (SWOP), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Notes

1. The Self-Governing Territories Constitution Act of 1971 legislated the formation of ‘independent' and ‘self-governing' Bantustans. In just a little more than a decade, 10 culturally and ethnically distinct Bantu territories were formed: Lebowa (self-governing) in 1972; Gazankulu (self-governing) in 1973; Qwaqwa (self-governing) in 1974; Transkei (independent) in 1976; Kwazulu (self-governing) in 1977; Kangwane (self-governing) in 1977; Bophuthatswana (independent) in 1977; Kwandebele (self-governing) in 1979; Venda (independent) in 1979 and Ciskei (independent) in 1981 (Lund 2008, 9).

2. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No. 108 of 1996.

3. Mainly in-depth interviews – more than 3500.

4. The post-apartheid government ‘formalised’ the control of chiefs over rural communal land administration through the Communal Land Rights Act, No. 11 of 2004.

5. These areas formed part of the so-called Tribal (Bantu) Authorities that were established through the BAA 68 of 1951 during the apartheid era.

6. The BPDM is one of four district municipalities that form the North West Province. It comprises five local municipalities: Kgetleng Rivier, Madibeng, Moses Kotane, Moretele and Rustenburg.

7. See Mnwana (2014) for further discussion of the Master Plan.

8. Setswana for community or polity.

9. Other traditional communities involved in platinum mining in North West include Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela, Bakubung ba Rutheo, Bapo ba Mogale and baKwena ba Mogopa. It should be noted that none of the communities can be compared to the Bafokeng community in terms of corporate strides in the mining industry and infrastructural development, not even the neighbouring Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela who seem to be following after Bafokeng.

10. The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (No. 28 of 2002) and the Mineral and Petroleum Royalty Bill of 2007 and the Mining Charter.

11. Mnwana (2012) provides a detailed breakdown of RBN's mining investments.

12. Through various articles of the Pretoria and London Conventions (1881 and 1884, respectively) and the Native Land Acts of 1913 and 1936.

13. See Capps (2010) for a detailed empirical account of the history of the Bafokeng land.

14. For a detailed discussion of Bafokeng's private ownership of land, see Capps (2010).

15. Thirty-four out of 60 respondents.

16. The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace (Royal Bafokeng Stadium) was a hosting ground for football matches during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.