PAP AND MEAT OR COAL AND CABBAGE?

At the rate the government is granting open cast coal mining licenses in Mpumalanga, we will soon have to change the traditional menus in the country. Maize and soy bean hectares are unceremoniously changed into coal mines. I understand that the diamond diggers in the western parts of the country are not far behind their coal digging pals.

Mining licenses are handed out like lollipops in an orphanage. It creates instant millionaires, but it does not fill the empty stomachs of the poor people in this country. It almost reminds one of another adage “sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the stomach.”

The haphazard manner in which most environmental impact studies are carried out, is testimony of blatant unprofessionalism in an industry not only prepared to sell their own souls, but also the souls of our children in this country.

Thousands of hectares of unrehabilitated mining land will take years to restore and build up to once again go into production. What a shame! To again build up the productive capacity of these lands will cost a lot more than maintaining them, without even calculating the cost of producing competitively on them.

The limited arable lands available in South Africa are literally under attack from all sides: mining, land claims, urbanisation, industrial development, criminal elements and climate change. No wonder there are so few people who see a long term future in food production.

Technological improvements may still be utilised to negate the impact of climate change, but against the other elements a political will is required, otherwise these elements will overwhelm the situation. Pap and meat on our dinner tables will be replaced by cabbage and coal.

I never could stomach cabbage. Some will say that I have not yet been hungry enough. However that may be, with regard to coal, I do not stand alone. Nobody can eat it. So, even though a few privileged people annually benefit hugely from supplying millions of tons of coal to the ever “hungry” China, you are literally taking food from the mouths of thousands of South Africans – irrespective of whether coal might seem politically correct.

Where and when will a political leader rise, look through all the dust and soot in Mpumalanga and say: “Enough is enough. What are our children going to live from?” Our eyes are searching all over the world to see who will put up his hand. If all the fish just swim downstream, it seems to me they are all dead. Leadership is to do the right thing – politically correct or not.

Jannie de Villiers, CEO