May 25th as discussed we came up with a plan of targeting youth and children. The plan is to have the day of Action in an abandoned mine 33 km from Newcastle KwaZulu-Natal known as DNC (Durnacol), the slogan is "Human Rights Not Hu-Mine-rights". We proposed the venue since the abandoned mine is a sore to the community, it is next to the high school that suffers with cracks and dust that comes from old remains of coal that were never rehabilitated.
Why youth and children and the proposed venue?, I noticed that youth must know what happened there as the mine closed around 1998 so the youth have many questions with answers. The aim is to sensitize them and change their perception from seeing mine as development to see it as an unwanted extraction that is detriment to the environment and causes irreversible damage.
The sudden retrenchment crippled many families and financially orphaned them, some never recovered till this day. The theme of the DoA is ''The future of an active mine can be seen in a mine that is closed or abandoned and the future of a proposed mine can be seen in both the active and the abandoned mine''.
Part of our day activity will be to visit the active mine recently opened known as Ikhwezi Mine which we lobbied against but ultimately it was granted mining rights by DMR. This will paint a vivid picture that Ikhwezi Mine is heading the towards the same direction as DNC ( Durnacol). With children we'll use the opportunity for a photo shoot that we'll send message to DBSA. children will take a photowith placards carrying a message that must get across: ''We are the Children, we are the World'', ''Protect our Future and Stop funding fossil fuel''. Human Rights and No Hu-mine-rights''.