Community members that used to live in Sporong village and were forcefully removed by the mine, went back to visit the grave site of their ancestors. There were remains/bones found in some part of the area, as the mine was doing some construction. Picture:Bhekikhaya Mabaso African News Agency (ANA)

Johannesburg- A rural community uprooted and mercilessly scattered throughout the country is still nursing the pain of the apartheid government’s forced removal policy.

They were booted from their land in Sporong along the platinum belt outside Rustenburg to make way for mining, and the government separated community members as they tried to see where they could resettle.

As a result, 55 years after that fateful period, many Sporong community members had never seen each other again, nor were they aware of where others had ended up. To rub salt into their wounds, the platinum mine, now owned by Anglo American Platinum, erected a railway line over the graves of the displaced community to make way for the delivery of mining equipment and other goods.

However, some of the surviving Sporong community members have waged a spirited fight-back against Anglo American Platinum, and dug out portions of the railway line that ran over the cemetery. The Sunday Independent spent this week with some of the affected families in the now-defunct Sporong.

Heart-rending tales of sorrow and pain and piercing recollections of the dismantling of their once stable and solid community until apartheid’s brutality were told as if everything happened yesterday.

Dan Lesojane, a Sporong community leader who was a toddler when the forced removal took place, says he still has vivid memories that are like a constant nightmare.

“We were born at Sporong and growing up like others who came before us. We were a close-knit, big, happy community living on our ancestral land. Until the white man came,” Lesojane said, pausing to regain strength.

“Our people were scattered like sheep. Some ended in far-flung places toward Pretoria. Others, like my family, found permanent refuge thanks to the mercy of a nearby community of Photsaneng, where we were duly incorporated,” said Lesojane.

Around the desecrated graves in Sporong, batches of active mine equipment bear testimony to the millions of rand Anglo-American makes through mining platinum. The remnants of the cemetery are still visible. Some graves have remained untouched amid the community’s ordeal, with headstones standing firmly in metaphorical resistance to apartheid.

The year 1968 is a stark reminder of South Africa’s heinous past. And, nearly thirty years following the dawn of a constitutional democracy, the Sporong community still searches for a just resolution to their plight and suffering.

Despite the numerous Chapter 9 organisations in democratic South Africa, help for the Sporong community remains either completely absent or so little it’s not worth talking about. Spokes Rathulwane, 77, is regarded as one of the remaining elders of the Sporong community. He was a teenager when they were ejected from their birthplace.

He told the Sunday Independent this week: “I can’t talk about Sporong without shedding a tear. My mother, Senka Rathulwane, was born and bred in Sporong from 1915 until she died in 1951. Her grave and that of my maternal grandmother, Sani Rathulwane, are among those that we saved when we toyi-toyied against the mine’s destruction of our cemetery. Unfortunately, my uncle’s grave can no longer be traced. Like many others, it was covered with large rubble when the mine was excavating to build the railway line."

Other community members also recall the events of the destruction of Sporong. Johanna Sithole, 72, said: “I was still young but I remember that day. Before, we were coerced to leave our homes. The white men came and marked our houses with numbers in paint. They did not tell our parents anything. Then a few days later, they forcefully evicted us from our homes with no place to go.”

Upon their removal from their homes, the villagers were scattered all over neighbouring the villages of Photsaneng, Maboloka, Moruleng and Thekwana across the present-day North West province, while some moved to parts of Gauteng.

Being homeless and belonging to no community was the most painful for many of the displaced families, as Nonoko Nkwane recalled. “When we moved to the neighbouring village of Photsaneng, the people there treated Sporong villagers as though they were outcasts,” Nkwane said. “People called us all sorts of names - it was so painful. We wondered why people of the same colour, people who spoke the same language as we did, would call us names.”

The Sporong community survivors claim that their destroyed cemetery has no less than 200 graves. However, in their violent clashes with the mine security, as they protested to defend the graves of their loved ones, the mine authorities argued that they had seen only three graves. The battle for the return of their land is intensifying. The community has secured the services of a Johannesburg-based law firm to assist.

Walking deep into the woods where the surviving Sporong people insist their loved ones are buried, one is greeted by two graves with headstones with the epitaphs of Johannes Tinana, who was buried in 1965, and Rueben Mooi, who was laid to rest in 1941.

Seanokeng Makgaka is one of the protesting Sporong survivors. She said: “We were surprised when the mine said there were only three graves on that site. My grandmother is buried there so are many others. All these people you see here have a loved one buried in this place. The mine has dug up many human remains here. They must show us where they threw the bones of our people.”

Makgaka continued: “We are Africans, and we have rituals that we perform to honour our loved ones who are departed but cannot do that because whenever we try to access the graveyard the mine charges us with trespassing.”

The protesting villagers swear the land belongs to them since their forefathers worked what they called “three or four money” — a process where one would work for three or four months and get paid with a piece of land in the end. In 2019, at the height of a community protest to get their land back, some of the protesters, such as Lesojane, were arrested for trespassing and later for contempt of court after he failed to appear in the Mahikeng High Court.

He spent 17 days in police custody at the time, and last year he was jailed for 15 days after being arrested for leading a protest at Sporong village. Lesojane said: “I received the summons for the second charge via phone, followed by a WhatsApp text. How does one receive a court order by text? How sure was I that it was not a scam or a tactic to scare me from pursuing the matter further?”

Before he was arrested in 2021, he used to go to the Sporong cemetery to clean the graves in accordance with his cultural practice. The community feels let down by the police as they allege that they abused their power by arresting Lesojane but failed to act when the community complained about the mine.

Lesojane said: “This is our land, and the Constitution states that gravesites are sufficient evidence for one to claim their land.”

The CRL Rights Commission spokesperson Mpiyakhe Mkholo said the community could submit a complaint to the commission for investigation.

“Part of the investigation would be to engage with the community and listen to their side of the story.”

In response to the allegations made by the community, the mine said it was committed to harmoniously coexisting with communities in the areas where it operated. Moreover, the company said it was always open to engagement with its host communities to discuss, investigate and address valid grievances and concerns through relevant structures.

Anglo American Platinum external communication principal Nomonde Ndwalaza said, “Anglo American Platinum confirms that there are graves on our land, which is next to our Western Limb distribution centre, and they are located adjacent to the Transnet-owned railway line.

“For safety and security reasons, permission for access has to be arranged before arrival, and we have the processes in place to regularly grant community members permission to access graves and do rituals on our property.”

Ndwalaza added: “The company respects and protects cultural heritage. We recognise the importance of cultural heritage to communities and society and that it supports the creation of social value. We commit significant time and resources to ensure we comply with the laws and regulations governing all grave-related matters in South Africa. At this stage, there are no plans for the relocation of the graves.”

In addition, Ndwalaza said “the matter which is currently in court relates to eviction and interdict applications for the illegal erecting of structures on the property adjacent to Anglo American Platinum’s Western Limb Distribution Centre in Sporong”.

“This property is owned by Anglo American Platinum, the unlawful occupiers of this land however contend that the existence of the graves gives them a legitimate claim to this portion of land. Final interdict and eviction orders were granted by the Mahikeng High Court in August 2022. The unlawful occupiers have applied to rescind the judgment for the eviction application. The rescission application is currently pending before the court.”