Online Petition

"This type of civil action is a very interesting test for our democracy. It is overwhelmingly clear that the local community object to the mining and that other citizens of our country, when informed of the facts, also vehemently disagree with a process that is blatant in its purpose of minority enrichment. If the public voice, the voters voice, fail to stop immoral activity such as the mining of the Xolobeni beaches, then we are a democracy and society deeply in trouble." -Will vd Merwe

That was the comment by the 4,190'th person to sign the Online Petition against strip-mining for titanium at Xolobeni: www.petitiononline.com/xolobeni/petition-sign.html

Throughout the day, whenever I checked, the signatures seemed to be coming in at a rate of about 100 per hour. Though now, at about 6pm on a Friday evening here in SA, and surprising as it may seem, they've slowed to a trickle. Be great if it maintains momentum next week.

It's been interesting watching the petition reach critical mass (of some sort) over the past few days. Today is actually the last day for comments & petitions to be submitted to the minister of minerals and energy, Buyelwa Sonjica; but that doesn't matter since they probably won't consider the online petition as legal or representative in any way: just a bunch of rich whites trying to protect their holiday homes and golf estates, anyway.