People and machines. At Malahleni, Mpumalanga of South Africa.In the short-term, communities need to address some of the most pressing issues they face. They cannot always afford to wait for laws to be changed or amended. This is why community empowerment is so critical, particularly in the mine-hosting communities of Southern Africa, where community members endure many harmful mining conditions.
It is through action that change emerges. It is still the case that meaningful interactions between mining communities and the mines only come about as a result of protest or demonstrations. To find alternatives to mining in the long-term and to address pressing issues in the short-term, civil society needs to invest resources into countering power through more coordinated resistance and solidarity. This starts with building a strong community voice aware of community level issues.
The legacy
The continuing legacy of mining in South Africa as it relates to the well being of mine-hosting communities necessarily presents us with contradictory perspectives. Mining, main source of the country’s wealth, contributed significantly to developing South Africa into one of the leading economies in Africa and the Third World. But mining has also caused considerable destruction to black communities and sowed divisions between white and non-white populations. Black Africans had been mining South Africa’s natural resources before the arrival of whites. But whites industrialised and corporatised mining, stifling artisanal mining practices in the process of introducing advanced machinery. As their land was appropriated and exploited, the only role for blacks was to provide the labour to mine it. The wealth of whites like Cecil Rhodes and Ernest Oppenheimer was built on this exploitation, while blacks became landless. However, the transition from artisanal to industrialisation was not smooth.
