Gwendolyn Wellmann's Page

The long-awaited South African Human Rights Commission Report of the National Hearing on the Underlying Socio-economic Challenges of Mining-affected Communities in South Africa has been released.  The hearings were held on the 13-14 September 2016, 26 and 28 September 2016, and 03 November 2016.

The main findings of the report are as follows:

There is a disjuncture between the intended impact of the comprehensive regulatory framework for the mining industry in…

A few days ago I attended a consultative roundtable discussion on the World Gold Council’s draft Responsible Gold Mining Principles in Johannesburg. Whilst one cannot actually say that the event was well attended, the few of us who were there for the whole event were there to fully participate and we were accorded sufficient time to raise our concerns. It was also a significant improvement (compared to how these consultative processes normally go) to see (very vocal) affected community…

At the May 2018 International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) annual conference, I presented some results of ongoing research which look at the impact on women affected by land acquisition for the purposes of development. It is clear that women’s rights to tenure are often ignored, that women are often not included in the consultation processes around access to land, that women’s crops are often ignored during the valuation process, and that women are not included when cash…

The Mining Charter (June 2017) makes reference to the need for mine communities to be awarded shares. Whether or not this version of the charter passes the legal challenges it will no doubt face in coming weeks and months, it cannot be disputed that community development for mine-affected communities, whether through a mechanism of share ownership or not, is vital. However, the proposal that the communities’ share be held in trust, raises concerns. One wonders how this will differ from the…