Nonhle Mbuthuma - Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC)
Fuentes
On 15 November, 2020 Nonhle Mbuthuma, a prominent anti-mining activist in Umgungundlovu in Eastern Mpondoland, South Africa, and spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), reportedly received a death threat via text message. The anonymous message, which listed Mbuthuma among other anti-mining activists from the area who have either been killed or died, made a number of open threats of murder. According to local reports, assassinations have become part of the political currency in Umgungundlovu – often called Xolobeni after one of the villages in the area – since people living there started resisting the proposed mining. The threat also refers to the private security guards that Mbuthuma and others in the ACC, like members of other social movements in the country, were forced to enlist after the murder of Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Radebe, founder of the ACC, and other death threats. Mbuthuma is actively involved in opposing the operation of Transworld Energy and Minerals (TEM), subsidiary of the Australian mining company MRC, in communal lands and represented her community in a dispute with the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral), which is planning to move the N2 Highway Toll Road away from the coast in their area as the planned route would go through Mdatya and Sigidi villages.