Mineral wealth – ‘in the name ofmorafe’? Community control in South Africa's ‘Platinum Valley’
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Direct control of mineral resource wealth by communities in resource-endowed regions is advocated as a panacea to conflict and fundamental towards attainment of self-determination and local autonomy. Based on the study conducted in Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela, the two prominent, platinum-rich traditional communities in South Africa's North West Province, this article reveals that, although mineral wealth in South Africa's platinum-endowed communities such as Royal Bafokeng is reportedly distributed ‘in the name of morafe’ (‘community’ in Setswana), inadequate participation produces polarised local priorities and tensions at the grassroots level. Community control of mineral wealth is thus likely to paradoxically generate conflict and exclusion at the traditional community level, particularly in contexts where participation in mineral wealth-engendered community development is championed by traditional leaders through customary-derived spaces of local engagement.
Source: Development Southern Africa
Author: Sonwabile Mnwana
Institutions: University of Cape Town, National Research Foundation
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2068089421