Church organisation to act as peacemaker between miners and communities
A church organisation has set out to be a peacemaker between mining companies and the communities in which they operate. The Bench Marks Foundation‚ which is backed by the South African Council of Churches and other faith-based bodies‚ wants to offer an independent problem-solving service. "We have been saying to the industry that there is a big problem between mines and communities‚" said the foundation director John Capel. "Two things are needed. Communities need access to specialist expertise when it comes to mining‚ especially on things such as environmental and social impact assessments, and communities also lack access to social justice‚ so we have recommended building an independent grievance mechanism based on the UN’s global principles on business and human rights." The foundation’s proposal was tabled last Friday at a green mining workshop hosted at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Capel said the next step would be to raise the idea with the Chamber of Mines. Approaches ...
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