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South Africa: Mounting Pressure On Families Holding Out Against Coal Mine Expansion
GroundUp, 3 June 2020
"We know that if we are not here, our house will be burnt down" Read more »
Mining Expansion in South Africa Threatens Homes, Environment
The extension of the Somkhele coal mine - one of the country's largest open-cast coal mines, close to Africa's oldest proclaimed nature reserve, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Park - has seen residents in the village of Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal allegedly facing bullying tactics aimed at forcing them to relocate, write Fred Kockott and Matthew Hattingh for GroundUp. This is the latest example in how the expansion of mining operations in the country have had major impacts on surrounding environments, like the legal sanctioning of vastly expanded beach mining on the West Coast, reported by to GroundUp's John Yeld, and legislation like the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, which goes against international progress made in protecting the rights of rural and indigenous people against mining operations write Daniel Huizenga and Anastasya Eliseeva for New Frame.
Many families living in and around Somkhele coal mine are still angry that family graves were desecrated and the skeletal remains buried in a cemetery and not at their homes as is custom.
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