First published in Daily Maverick 168 Weekly Newspaper
First you might dangle some carrots in front of an impoverished rural community. Then you might pin potential job losses associated with those carrots on the environmental activists who oppose, say, the mining company claiming to offer those jobs. This might have consequences.
In the case of Our Burning Planet Hero of the Year Fikile Ntshangase, attorney Kirsten Youens and several environmental organisations have suggested that this, at least, was a strategy employed by a coal miner operating alongside rural communities in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Representing the interests of families living on Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve’s eastern border, Youens accused coal miner Tendele of inciting violence among a “deeply divided” local people. Tendele has repeatedly denied this accusation.