Eighty-three residents of Uitvalgrond, outside Brits in the North West have lost the mining rights to their own land. They are putting the blame on the owner of the Chelsea football team, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich… and Jacob Zuma.

The landowners say they have been battling Evraz Vametco, which owns the vanadium mine in the mineral rich North West, from acquiring the absolute right to mine on their land. They even asked the president for help, sending him a letter outlining how they came to own the land and how they are being dispossessed of it, but to no avail.

Evraz Vametco Alloys, a subsidy of Evraz, has been mining vanadium on the Uitvalgrond farm and the adjacent Krokodil Kraal since early 2000. The steel making and mining company is owned by 3 mega-wealthy Russians, with the largest stake belonging to Roman Abramovich.

In 2007, Evraz acquired a stake in Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation, South Africa’s second-largest steel maker and the world’s leading vanadium supplier, forming Evraz Highveld Steel. Nemascore, whose directors include Linda Makhathini, who is also a director of the Jacob Zuma Children’s Fund, has bid to purchase 85% of Evraz Highveld Steel. Linda was also one of President Jacob Zuma’s legal advisers during Schabir Shaik’s trial.

Nemascore’s registered address is the Sandton office of Michael Hulley’s law firm. Hulley is Zuma’s legal adviser.

While the Highveld Steel deal is not directly connected to Evraz Vametco, sources close to the landowners are linking the two transactions because the companies have the same main shareholder, Evraz.

[Source : City Press]