Remove Gwede Mantashe and Barbara Creecy

WE ARE SOUTH AFRICANS DEMANDS THE PRESIDENT PLACE MINISTERS ON SPECIAL LEAVE AND ESTABLISHES A SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

We are South Africans has sent a letter to the President of the Republic of South Africa, as the largest civil society movement in South Africa, representing all of our communities in their diversity, beliefs, lifestyles and culture requesting the following:

1. That he places, with immediate effect, Ministers Gwede Mantashe and Barbara Creecy on special leave.
2. That he orders the creation of a SOUTH AFRICAN oversight committee THAT INCLUDES South African public bodies, civil society organizations, environmental organizations, community organizations, scientists, financial experts, community leaders, traditional leaders and indigenous people in order to assess the permits granted by the department and its agencies – in short competent representatives of the People of South Africa.
3. The immediate suspension of all legislative amendments passed through in the tenure of these ministers so that these can be overlooked and corrected for the benefit of the People of South Africa.
4. The suspension and moratorium on all rights, censures, mining, oil and gas exploration granted in the tenure of these ministers so that they too can be assessed by this oversight committee.
5. That this oversight committee be funded by the government and be given three years to rectify our nations position on minerals, mineral rights, water, oil and gas rights and ensure all decisions are made for the benefit of South Africans.

We have listed in the letter only some of the recent environmental disasters that have occurred under these Ministers watch and also the fact that they are not transparent, nor inclusive in their statements and actions, nor sympathetic to the effects on the People of South Africa.

These environmental disasters include a short list of the most recent events and others concerning us.
1. The approval of the dumping of toxic chemicals off the Western Cape Coast.
2. The approval of permits for seismic surveys.
3. The selling of South Africa’s minerals rights to foreigners and no local beneficiation plan in process.
4. Suspending regulations on trade in hazardous chemicals.
5. Mining operations in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal causing immense damage
6. The mismanagement of St Lucia as per their community
7. Eskom’s non-compliance to air pollution due to the incompetence of the Ministry
8. The poaching of our species and the failure to protect them (like our Rhino’s)
9. The coal dam spillage near Imfolozi Game Reserve.
10. The environmental damage cause by the Tormin Operation and other mining operations on the Western Coasts
11. The sale of our species and CITES protected species to other nations.

We also condemn and demand a retraction of the statement made by Ministers likening environmentalists and communities, which they have all but raped of rights and resources, that are defending their rights to inclusion as similar to “colonialism and Apartheid” and we are sick and tired of hearing the government using these terms as an excuse for their own incompetence, failure and lack of relevant qualifications and having caused the same suffering on the People of South Africa under this dispensation.