Mining-led development and local politics of youth participation in the Mokopane traditional authority area in Limpopo province, South Africa

Abstract

In general, studies on development concur that participatory practice at the local level is influenced by local power relations. The structures of power in local communities are important in the way they determine the extent to which citizens participate in decision-making and development activities. However, there are a few empirical studies examining the impacts of power relations on youth participation in peripheral areas experiencing the rapid expansion of large-scale mining activities. Drawing on detailed ethnographic research conducted in two villages that host Ivanplats’s Platreef Mining Project, this study examines how the structures of power in Mokopane Traditional Authority Area in Limpopo Province shape and influence the character of youth participation in mining-led community development decisions and activities. The study adopts Gaventa’s Power Cube as its primary theoretical tool of analysis. The study shows how the youth, as a social category, hardly participate in mining-led community development because the model of participation adopted by local powerholders encourages the marginalisation of young people. Instead of reducing the power imbalances, the model is used to enhance the power of traditional elites over young people. The study also shows that the youth have not passively endured marginalization from decision making processes. Instead, the youth in the study area have actively sought to create alternative networks and spaces of associational life to counter their marginalization from local decision making structures. Young people at local level are resisting their continued exclusion from mining-led community development. They are mobilizing their identity and power to challenge the power of traditional elites over decision-making and demand attention on issues that affect them. The findings of the study provide insights into the emerging power shifts that take place at local level in communities coexisting with large-scale extractive industries. Power imbalances along social divisions like gender, generation and patriarchy fuel social conflicts and struggles for mineral resources in mining communities in various parts of the world. Insights from the research also shed light on local power configurations and contestations around the distribution of mining benefits. These insights are important for policy makers. Evidence on the socio-economic impacts of mining on different social groups and their access to participatory processes can enhance the efficacy of policy interventions meant to create more inclusive mining regimes. Overall, inclusive mining economies ensure that large-scale investments in this sector uplift local communities through, among other things, the reduction various forms of exclusions and related social conflicts.