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Download AudioHow Coal Mining Displaces Lives in South Africa
By Darius Spearman (africanelements)
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The Human Cost of Coal Extraction
Generations-old graves lie disinterred. Families abandon homes their ancestors tilled for 300 years. This is coal’s excoriating grip in South Africa. The Mpumalanga Highveld reveals one of Earth’s most industrialized coal zones where 84 operational mines ravage both land and people. Mines consume 35% of the province’s surface area, uprooting communities wholesale. Masakhane Village rebuilds 14 kilometers away from now-barren terrain as bulldozers erase their former dwellings (The BothEnds Report).
Coal Dominates South Africa’s Energy Landscape
Entire townships trade breathability for economic necessity. Meanwhile, coal dust clots lungs, lowering life expectancy to 56 in Highveld zones. Poverty forces many into hazardous jobs where Black labor remains segregated in practice if not law. Critically, ancestral burial sites face relocation to expand mines eroding cultural heritage for megaton profits.
Environmental Devastation and Systemic Neglect
The Highveld morphs into a charscape of subsided land and acidified rivers. Open-pit mining reshapes ecosystems, desolating 40% of fertile soil in coal regions. Groundwater polluted by heavy metals like mercury renders agriculture impossible. Consequently, cornfields yield to coal slurry dams, which locals describe as “toxic time capsules.”
Environmental Costs of Coal Mining
Oddly, formal letters arrive announcing mine expansions. They mention technical feasibility studies but disregard soil erosion’s community effects. Farmers displaced to peri-urban slums join 40% unemployment queues and then return to mines for subsistence wages. The necro-industrial system recirculates the victims it dispossessed.
Structural Inequality Persists In Modern Mining
Mining conglomerates harvest R340 billion annually while workers die in preventable accidents underground. State capture scandals reveal how politicians prioritize coal interests over welfare. A Pretoria High Court ruling forced Anglo American to compensate silicosis victims after decades of lethal dust exposure. Symbolic victories drip through calcified systems.
Economic Paradox of Coal Dependency
Calls for renewable energy jobs amplify as shutdowns loom. Towns like Middelburg pivot toward wind farms, but coal’s shadow endures. For every R10 million invested in renewables, R290 million still flows toward fossil fuels annually. Transition debates ignore how displacement hollowed communal ties, weakening resistance to new disruptions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, teaching since 2007. He is the author of several books, including Between The Color Lines: A History of African Americans on the California Frontier Through 1890. You can visit Darius online at africanelements.org.
