LEPHALALE - The R145-billion Eskom Medupi power plant has possibly been built on graves belonging to at least 14 families in Limpopo. The families say they weren’t properly consulted about the development when construction for the multi-billion rand project began more than seven years ago. Their grievances have prompted the power utility, along with the Department of Environmental Affairs, to start a new consultation process with the community, which might result in them getting compensation. A report compiled by the African Development Bank, which financed part of the multi-billion rand power project, has found that no real effort has been made to identify such unmarked graves and so the risk of desecration remains substantial. The report was compiled by experts in the banks Independent Review Mechanism (Dr Richard Bissell and Professor Daniel Bradlow) in 2011 and also found that better consultations could have lessened this risk. Caroline (66) and her mother Dinah Molokomme (84) are fighting for the right to visit the grave of their ancestor, which is at the Medupi construction site. They form part of the Motlohelwa family who are one of 14 families to have come forward with grievances regarding Eskom’s Medupi power plant. She says her maternal grandmother Paulina Mapi is still lying interred somewhere under the construction site. Image above: Elders of the Motlohelwa family say they are concerned about the body of their mother Paulina Mapi which they claim is still lying interred somewhere on the Medupi construction site. Picture: eNCA/Lebohang Mashiloane They were invited to a meeting at Medupi in 2012 to identify where the grave was, but because of all the construction they couldn’t identify the exact location. When we got there we found the place had already been dug up, we didn’t understand where the graves were, she said. Since these families left in the 1970s, they were not involved in negotiations with Eskom when the farms were bought for the largest dry-cooled power station in the world. Medupi was built without people being told. The white people of the farms are the ones who mixed things up, said Caroline. Traditional healer Lawrence Seodisa explained that in African religious belief systems it is important to have access to graves as it is custom to visit the sites and perform rituals when they have problems. He says many problems that locals in the informal settlement of Marapong are having today are because the ancestors are not at peace. Children are sick and many deaths are happening because of upset spirits – some of whom were traditional healers themselves. Some of them had the power of rain, and if these ladies could visit the graves and perform the ritual they could make it rain now, said Seodisa. Eskom is currently in the process of appointing a heritage service provider to conduct the second heritage assessment. This was brought about by the 2011 African Development Bank compliance report. The bank loaned Eskom R20.7-billion for the power station, which is expected to create 4,800 megawatts of electricity when it comes online. The African Development Bank report notes that while the borrower (Eskom) held a number of public participation meetings and submitted supporting documentation to prove this, a large number of people from Marapong and the traditional leadership claimed they weren’t consulted. This is particularly noteworthy because these communities include the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the project area, notes the report. Also, the high rate of illiteracy and poverty was noted as a possible cause of the potential failure to inform people. That the consultation process failed to reach all groups in the affected community is also indicated by the fact that the vast majority of the written comments included... are in English and the rest are in Afrikaans, notes the report.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 20:27:14 +0000