Tensions between the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) and Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe escalated again yesterday after Mantashe announced he would be making a third attempt to visit the volatile Xolobeni community in the Eastern Cape next week, according to a report in The Citizen.

This comes after Mantashe sent a letter to ACC lawyers on 20 December inviting ‘stakeholders’ to discuss ‘economic development’ in Xolobeni on 16 January. The Xolobeni community has been at loggerheads with the department while waging a 15-year battle against the issuing of a mining licence to Transworld Energy and Minerals, a subsidiary of Australian mining company MRC, to mine titanium in the Xolobeni area on the Wild Coast.

In a statement, ACC said its lawyers would probably meet Mantashe last night, but stressed he was not welcomed by the community.

In December, ACC banned Mantashe from Xolobeni, saying he was not welcome in the community anymore after it received his application for leave to appeal the court’s judgment backing the community’s right to say no to mining in their area. The community had scored a major victory in November after the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) ruled that the Minister may not grant mining rights without the consent of the community and the people directly affected by that mining right. Mantashe lodged an appeal on 13 December.

Full report in The Citizen