Burundi’s government is trying to increase its share of the mineral wealth that foreign mining companies extract from its soil. The government receives only 10% of the income from the minerals even though it owns the land, according to an official of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

To put pressure on foreign mining companies operating in Burundi, the government ordered a shut-down last July of mines belonging to seven British, Chinese and Russian companies. It says the mines can re-open once the contracts have been renegotiated.

An anthracite mine in rural KwaZulu-Natal which has operated for more than 30 years and has reportedly been involved in several controversies during this time involving water pollution, illegal mine expansion and water shortages in neighbouring rural communities, experienced a slurry dam collapse on 24 December 2021. Large volumes of potentially toxic and acidic coal-mine effluent have spilled into rivers flowing through rural communities and the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi and iSimangaliso wildlife reserves.

High Court judge Justice Martin Mafusire has dismissed an application by Chilonga villagers challenging government’s plans to evict more than 12 000 families from their ancestral land in Chiredzi to pave way for a lucerne grass project.

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro 

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a prominent South African Advocate and author writing an Op-Ed in the Mail and Guardian on 8th January, provides in depth analysis of the failure by South Africa's ANC ruling party  to address land issues. He argues that "the backstory to the formation of the ANC (in 1912) was land... Yet the evidence since 1994 shows hesitation, timidity and indifference to the resolution of land".  

Ils sont mécaniciens, maraîchers ou autres occupants expropriés le long du tracé du Train express régional de Dakar (TER) devant être inauguré lundi et réclament 76 millions d'euros à l'Etat sénégalais.

"Le TER nous a appauvris. C'est un projet qui a produit des morts-vivants", affirme à l'AFP Amina Bayo, une responsable d'un "Collectif des impactés du TER".

The Rights and Resources Group has several interesting job opportunities available.

China’s cash-strapped developers have become reluctant to acquire land even as some local governments relax bidding rules, adding to signs of their liquidity crunch and threatening to deepen the nation’s economic slowdown. 

Land plots auctioned in the fourth quarter through Dec. 20 only fetched an average 3% premium over their starting prices, according to data compiled by China Real Estate Information Corp. That’s down from a 17% premium in the second quarter and 8% in the third, said the research agency, which tracks auctions across 300 Chinese cities.

Banner photo: Since most of the evicted families were Bengali-speaking Muslims, it was alleged that they are illegal immigrants who had forcibly occupied government land as well as land of indigenous people and also settled on grazing land. (PTI PHOTO.)