Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I detail the intense local struggles over the mineral-rich land and mining royalties in the villages that spread over the ‘platinum belt’ in the North West province. Conflict is characterised by resistance to local chiefs, violent protests, and exclusive group claims.

Paper long abstract:

The expansion of mining on ‘communal’ land in the former ‘homeland’ areas has produced new struggles in rural South Africa. In this paper, I detail the intense local struggles over the mineral-rich land and mining royalties in the villages that spread over the ‘platinum belt’ in the North West province. Conflict is characterised by resistance to local chiefs, violent protests, and exclusive group claims. Ordinary villagers also make strong demands for direct cash payments that are rooted on private group ‘ownership’ of land and mineral resources. Some of these claims end up in the courts of law. I argue that the failure of the post-apartheid policy mechanisms to facilitate equitable distribution of mining rents, and new forms of exclusion and elite accumulation at the local level are at the root of the prolonged conflict. The paper also contends that, a detailed sociological analysis of the character of ‘community’ – as social principle – could be a crucial intellectual intervention that might pave the way towards addressing the prevailing distributional impasse and conflict.