The surfer and tribal chief fighting to save a 550km South African coast

Martinus Fredericks meets maine extracurricular the constabulary presumption successful South Africa’s Atlantis, a somewhat forlorn semi-industrial municipality connected the outskirts of Cape Town. On this winter’s morning, Atlantis is shrouded successful fog. After a steadfast handshake, helium leads maine crossed the roadworthy into an unmarked building.

On the 2nd floor, astatine the extremity of a wide, airy corridor that besides houses the assemblage vigor station, we participate an bare java store with six integrative tables adorned with achromatic tablecloths and golden spot settings. Over beverage and sandwiches, Fredericks tells maine however an astounding midlife revelation led him to go the look of a societal and biology battle.

Born successful 1965, helium grew up successful the cultivation municipality of Robertson, speaking Afrikaans and identifying arsenic “coloured” – the apartheid regime’s catch-all word for radical who did not acceptable into their “white”, “Black” oregon “Indian” radical boxes. After school, helium studied agriculture and biology sciences, aboriginal moving successful quality conservation.

His beingness was upended successful 2012 erstwhile representatives of the !Ama Chieftaincy successful Bethany, Namibia, visited him successful Atlantis. “They told maine that I was a nonstop descendant of their person !Abeb,” helium says, adding that they asked him to instrumentality implicit the South African enactment of the !Ama tribe.

The !Ama radical are pastoralists who, earlier the accomplishment of Europeans, followed their herds crossed a immense swath of Southern Africa (present-day South Africa and Namibia) successful hunt of the champion grazing.

“My archetypal thought was, ‘What the hell?’” helium says. “I was successful implicit shock.” When helium was increasing up, his begetter had spent a batch of clip successful Namibia (then known arsenic South West Africa), but helium had ne'er explained why. “We lone recovered retired aft his passing that helium was visiting his people. Our people.”

Martinus Fredericks, the ultimate person of the !Ama tribe, chats to a Protect the West Coast unit successful beforehand of a excavation dump astatine the Alexkor excavation successful the Richtersveld connected South Africa’s West Coast [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

In the 12 years since being made “gaob”, oregon ultimate leader, Fredericks has grown into the role. Although helium inactive dresses successful Western apparel and tin lone talk a smattering of !Ama, helium has taken it upon himself to combat for the rights of his radical – who person been excluded by successive governments for astatine slightest 350 years.

Before Europeans settled successful South Africa successful 1652, the !Ama knew nary borders, pursuing the rains successful hunt of grazing onshore for their cattle. But the accomplishment of land-hungry colonials – who noted with involvement the copper bracelets worn by the metalworking !Ama – and the instauration of rubric deeds saw the !Ama shunted to little fertile onshore that cipher other wanted.

Their exclusion became much implicit with the “discovery” of diamonds adjacent Kimberley successful 1867 (here, Fredericks notes that his radical had ever known astir diamonds, which they utilized to thatch children to count). “In the 1900s, Europeans started to enactment up fences,” says Fredericks. “And successful 1923, the authorities became alert of alluvial diamonds [removed from their archetypal source, typically by rivers] successful the Richtersveld [a mountainous godforsaken portion astatine the northernmost extremity of Namaqualand] and they started preventing america from accessing the onshore astatine all.”

Mining threatens to destruct overmuch of the West Coast, a sparsely populated and environmentally important region: It is location to myriad endemic works species, not to notation dozens of important seabird colonies and marine breeding grounds.

While diamond mining has already wreaked havoc connected its bluish reaches – ticker the nonprofit radical Protect the West Coast (PTWC)’s movie Mines of Mordor for an thought of the harm – dense soil mining for minerals similar zircon, ilmenite, rutile and magnetite looks acceptable to destruct environments on the full coastline.

One of galore seal colonies connected the West Coast that provender disconnected abundant prey successful the nutrient-rich waters distant from the dense mineral soil mining [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

By digging up beaches and gathering cofferdams – dams built to exposure the seabed for mining – full intertidal ecosystems, which prevarication betwixt the precocious and debased h2o marks, are ruined. Although companies are legally required to rehabilitate an country erstwhile they person finished mining it, authorities enforcement of authorities is mediocre and mining firms often walk the subordinate by selling mines to beforehand companies.

“It should beryllium truly casual to archer the quality betwixt ineligible and amerciable mining,” says Mike Schlebach, a large question surfer-come-activist who is determined not to let mining to destruct the West Coast, a 550km (342-mile) expanse of rugged beaches and melodramatic cliffs wherever flamingos, seals and jackals outnumber humans.

“But the authorities departments charged with enforcing mining and biology laws person blurred the lines completely. We’ve seen loads of cases wherever owed process is not followed.”

It is hardly surprising, fixed the country’s racist past, that successful the 19th and 20th centuries, the riches buried wrong South Africa’s soils were seen arsenic the sphere of the achromatic man. But – contempt what seemed to beryllium a landmark ineligible triumph successful 2003 – small has changed for the !Ama since the dawn of multiracial ideology successful 1994.

“They didn’t conscionable bargain our land,” says Fredericks. “They stole our identity, our connection and our traditions. But we volition get them back.”

The gigantic Tronox Namakwa Sands mine, connected a distant country of coastline astatine Brand se Baai [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

Recently, connected a bitterly acold July night, successful a dilapidated assemblage hallway successful the windswept mining municipality of Alexander Bay, wherever the mighty Orange River spews diamond-laden silt into the Atlantic Ocean, Fredericks convened a assemblage meeting. He was flanked by an improbable backing band: Schlebach, who is besides the laminitis of the PTWC group, which is opposed to unjust mining, and 2 chap surfers who service connected the PTWC board. Also contiguous was grassroots activistic Bongani Jonas of Mining Affected Communities United successful Action (MACUA), a instrumentality prof and a ineligible strategist.

Fewer than 2 twelve assemblage members – their faces hewn by lives lived successful the harsh and forgotten landscapes of the Richtersveld – braved icy wintertime gales to perceive Fredericks talk astir his efforts to yet spot justness for his people. It was not the archetypal specified gathering and it volition not beryllium the last, but present that Fredericks has truthful galore different players connected board, determination is simply a consciousness of renewed optimism.

Way backmost successful 1998, during the heady days of Nelson Mandela’s presidency, the Richtersveld assemblage made a onshore assertion demanding that the state-owned mining institution Alexkor concede a controlling stock of mineral rights to the community. In 2003, 9 years earlier Fredericks adjacent recovered retired astir his !Ama heritage, the assertion was granted – seemingly righting a 300-year-old incorrect and unlocking millions of dollars for the community.

But now, contempt the highest tribunal successful the onshore ruling that the Richtersveld assemblage is entitled to “ownership of the taxable onshore (including its minerals and precious stones) and to the exclusive beneficial usage and concern thereof”, the radical stay arsenic destitute arsenic ever.

As Fredericks explains: “It was signed. It was agreed betwixt Alexkor and the community. But we are inactive trying to unscramble the eggs.”

An unrehabilitated excavation with an aged cofferdam lies derelict and abandoned conscionable southbound of Hondeklip Bay astatine Langklipbaai [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

Andries Joseph, a 70-something !Ama antheral from the tiny colony of Lekkersing astir 113km (70 miles) from Alexander Bay, speaks of a assemblage that has been taken implicit by corrupt locals and authorities agents. “We are a enslaved connected our ain ground,” helium grumbles.

“The outcry of the people, the outcry of the aged mothers and fathers who saw things spell incorrect successful beforehand of their eyes [is being ignored]. There is nary halting, determination is nary stop.”

He is not wrong: What utilized to beryllium fertile farmland 2 years agone has go a dusty wasteland and determination is adjacent mining wrong the nationalist parkland declared to support the unsocial flora and fauna of the Richtersveld. But the !Ama tin lone ticker connected arsenic elephantine machines rip landscapes isolated and towns autumn into disrepair.

The ineligible aspects of the lawsuit are analyzable but the quality broadside of the communicative is devastatingly simple: The radical who unrecorded connected the West Coast person ever been sidelined.

“The West Coast is simply a unfortunate of its ain isolation,” says Schlebach, who is connected a ngo to yet springiness the radical who telephone it location a dependable done a operation of societal media posts, ineligible unit and old-fashioned assemblage activism. “We are not against each mining,” stresses Schlebach. “But we are against mining that does not travel the biology and societal safeguards enshrined successful our constitution.”

The archetypal of 2 assemblage meetings was held with members of the !Ama people, including Martinus Fredericks, successful the dusty inland colony of Sanddrift [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

It each started with a wave

Schlebach’s crusade began successful August 2020 when, aft enduring 1 of the world’s strictest lockdowns, helium was yet capable to embark connected a solo surfing travel to the seashore that shaped him arsenic a surfer. Now 47, helium had been surfing the gnarly waves of the West Coast since his 13th birthday.

“The West Coast is 1 of the past frontiers,” helium explains. “Heavy, uncrowded waves and untouched landscapes wherever you tin conscionable transportation a structure and free-camp. You tin spell days without seeing different soul.”

On the archetypal time of that trip, helium tried to entree a 10km (6.2-mile) portion of coastline wedged betwixt 2 mines. “I’d surfed determination before,” helium remembers. “But this time, the information guards astatine 1 of the mines wouldn’t fto maine in.” The adjacent time helium drove a small further northbound to spot with his ain eyes different precocious approved mining task with a worrying name: Ten Beach Extension.

“It was worse than I could person imagined. Ten beaches and 52km (32 miles) of pristine coastline being ripped to shreds by dense machinery.”

Seeing mines on the West Coast was thing caller for Schlebach, and determination has ever been a 230km (143-mile) agelong of coastline – the “diamond protected area” – that was wholly disconnected limits. But this was the archetypal clip Schlebach got a consciousness that mining was coming for the remainder of the coastline.

He had conscionable exited from a concern and had immoderate clip connected his hands: “I got backmost connected the Monday greeting and started calling immoderate friends successful the surfing community,” helium remembers. “I had nary thought however activism worked oregon what I was up against. But I wasn’t prepared to basal by and ticker arsenic the West Coast was destroyed.”

It was always, helium stresses, astir overmuch much than protecting waves: “But I would ne'er person known what was happening if I hadn’t been a surfer.”

Mike Schlebach goes surfing arsenic Australian-owned Mineral Sands Resources (MSR) grinds retired formation soil for dense minerals astatine its Tormin Mine [Courtesy of Protect the West Coast]

By November 2020, Schlebach and his co-founders had registered Protect the West Coast arsenic a nonprofit company. The aboriginal days were pugnacious and determination were times erstwhile the sheer impunity shown by mining companies and authorities officials made him earnestly question his ain naivete. But, acknowledgment successful portion to the enactment of influencers similar three-time large question satellite champion Grant “Twig” Baker (who pioneered galore West Coast surf spots successful the 2000s), they began to turn their societal media profile.

“People were shocked to spot what was going connected up there.”

Now, conscionable 4 years later, Protect the West Coast has grown to see scientists, small-scale fishers, lawyers, farmers, assemblage activists, way runners and the paramount main of the !Ama people.

South Africa’s past is 1 of part and it is highly antithetic for immoderate organisation to genuinely transcend race, class, language, acquisition and geography. This is what makes PTWC’s conglomerate of yuppie surfers and academics moving alongside penniless fishers and assemblage activists truthful powerful.

The organisation has already had immoderate singular successes. A petition calling for a moratorium connected each mining applications successful the portion has garnered 63,000 signatures. And a way moving contention called “Run West“, which traverses 21km (13 miles) of this pristine coastline, has present go an yearly fixture – this year’s contention is September 22 – and a large root of some income and publicity.

Perhaps astir importantly, successful 2023, the organisation was granted an out-of-court order to halt mining operations astatine the rima of the Olifants River, conscionable 250km (155 miles) northbound of Cape Town. Pivotal successful this process was different ally: Suzanne du Plessis, a longtime nonmigratory of the tiny colony of Doringbaai, who started an biology consciousness NGO mode backmost successful 2005.

A spot of serene beauty, the Olifants Estuary is the 3rd largest estuary successful South Africa. It is besides location to the largest brackish marshes successful the country, making it an important breeding crushed for galore food and vertebrate species, including achromatic oystercatchers, flamingos and pelicans. But this unsocial ecosystem besides harbours an array of sought-after minerals.

Since 2012, Du Plessis has been warring to forestall mining companies from destroying what should intelligibly beryllium a quality reserve. “In the beginning, the interest was soil mining and cofferdam mining connected the coast,” she recalls. “Then Tormin [Mineral Sands] made an exertion to imaginable connected the bluish bound of the Olifants Estuary, 17km (10.5 miles) inland. Despite 37 appeals, its exertion was granted.”

Du Plessis disquieted that the floodgates would open, and she was particularly acrophobic astir the mode successful which fishers’ concerns were roundly ignored. “They were mining connected land, connected the beaches, successful the intertidal portion and successful the sea,” says Du Plessis, “destroying breeding grounds for fishes and molluscs and birds and preventing nationalist entree to the coast” – a close enshrined successful South Africa’s constitution.

“The mining and situation ministers are not doing their job,” laments Du Plessis. “They conscionable motion disconnected connected applications. They don’t travel their ain rules, they conscionable rubber-stamp.”

She archetypal encountered Schlebach and PTWC successful 2020, a clip erstwhile the mining applications were coming successful heavy and fast. By then, Du Plessis and different acrophobic citizens and academics had been trying to forestall mining from destroying their beloved estuary for astatine slightest 8 years. But PTWC’s operation of societal media savvy and ineligible nous was a crippled changer.

“PTWC is wonderful, due to the fact that it’s a younger, much tech-savvy generation,” says Du Plessis. “I’d ne'er seen truthful galore antithetic radical coming unneurotic similar that. Of course, determination are differences, but what binds america unneurotic is adjacent stronger.”

An aerial presumption of the Olifants Estuary successful Papendorp, adjacent Doringbaai, connected September 22, 2022. Diamonds, zircon and different minerals person agelong been extracted successful the coastal country adjacent the Olifants River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean astir 300km  (186 miles) northbound of Cape Town [Wickus de Wet/AFP]

The roadworthy ahead

Thanks to contributions from firm and backstage donors, PTWC has reached a constituent wherever it is nearing fiscal sustainability. Fredericks, Schlebach and Du Plessis each stay committed to ensuring that the radical of the Richtersveld yet payment from the riches beneath their feet, that mining companies transportation retired their operations – including rehabilitation programs, according to the missive of the instrumentality – and that the past pristine stretches of the West Coast stay that way.

They volition proceed to prosecute their multipronged strategy of societal media exposure, ineligible unit and assemblage activism.  Schlebach is committed to bringing adjacent much stakeholders into the organisation.

They present person different formidable limb successful their armoury. The improvement of RIPL, a mobile and desktop app that makes commenting connected prospecting and mining rights applications much, overmuch easier.

“Any acrophobic national has the close to entity to an application, but the process has ever been mired successful reddish tape,” explains Schlebach. RIPL updates users the infinitesimal a caller exertion is made and makes commenting arsenic casual arsenic filling retired an online edifice review. “It could beryllium a existent crippled changer,” says Schlebach. “Not lone for the West Coast, but for communities each crossed South Africa.”

Talk astir riding the wave.