From Snake Park to Mogalakwena: Communities expose mining’s human toll

The Bench Marks Foundation (BMF) held its annual conference, under the theme, ‘(Un)just Transitions: Rethinking Mining’, earlier this week in Soweto. Community leaders, activists, policymakers, and researchers gathered to reflect on the future of mining justice in southern Africa. Bench Marks renewed its commitment to building solidarity among communities, civil society, and researchers to ensure that mining transitions are people- and, not profit-centred.

The discussions ranged from critical minerals, mass unemployment, and the gendered impacts of mining on women’s health and livelihoods.

Seeking justice and solutions

Zithulele Cindi, the chairperson of the BMF board, said that there can be no transition without justice. He argued that the much-celebrated ‘just transition’ is, in practice, unjust, as it disregards human rights, excludes community voices, and protects the interests of mining corporations that have dominated South Africa for over 150 years.

Cindi insisted that a true rethinking of mining requires the free, prior, and informed consent of communities. Many, having witnessed the destruction of their land and health, are rejecting mining altogether, he said. Cindi stressed that rethinking is not about words but about collective action to redress past harms and urged government to enforce existing legislation that too often remains unimplemented.

Economist, Duma Gqubule delivered a scathing critique of South Africa’s economic failures over the past three decades. He dismissed as a myth the idea that unemployment is caused by a “skills mismatch”. Instead, he argued the crisis stems from a lack of economic demand and political will. Gqubule called for a people’s dialogue to demand a universal basic income and a bold industrial policy. He also called for regional integration, recalling how the labour that historically fuelled mining and agriculture was drawn from southern Africa, and proposed a common market with free movement of labour.

Mining’s toxic legacy

Adv Sandra Makoasha, a representing the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) reflected on the commission’s role in holding government and corporations accountable. South Africa has over 6,100 abandoned mines, which she described as “gravesites waiting to take our people.”

The second day of the conference included a tour of mine tailings in Snake Park, Soweto.

Tiny Dhlamini, an activist from Snake Park, Soweto spoke about the severe health impacts of living alongside a mine dump, which include high rates of birth deformities and respiratory illnesses linked to mine dust. Farming is nearly impossible as animals die from grazing near polluted streams. The toxic environment intensifies suffering from poverty, unemployment, and gender-based violence.

Attempts by communities affected by mining to find solutions to the pollution, like phytoremediation, have been blocked by lack of funding and accountability. Phytoremediation uses sunflowers and other plants to clean contaminated environments by absorbing or breaking down pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, and oil from soil and water.

Rebecca Selomo from Mogalakwena Concerned and Affected Communities in Mokopane, Limpopo, said that forced relocations have left families in cracked houses with inhuman ablution facilities. Promises of grazing land and better living conditions remain unmet. She noted high unemployment among youth, and the ongoing social disruption of labour migrancy, particularly borne by young women left with the children of migrant mineworkers.

The speakers called for justice-driven solutions, enforcement of legislation, meaningful community consent, addressing unemployment with transformative economic policies, and holding corporations accountable for past and ongoing harms.