/ 13 March 2023

PODCAST | The human cost of South Africa’s mining and corporate riches

Illegal Mining
The City of Johannesburg has recorded an increase in illegal mining activities, which include tunnelling on the road reserve, below road surfaces and excavations of bridge embankments in recent years. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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In this podcast, we explore the colonial and apartheid-era policies and practices that modelled the exploitative and exclusive nature of mining in South Africa, a legacy that continues to shape the economic, social, and legal landscape of the present-day mining industry.

Various accounts from mining-affected community members, as captured in Lawyers for Human Rights and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung’s 2022 report The Impact and Assessment of Improper Mine Closures in South Africa: Community Perspectives on Human Rights, reveal the demographic and socioeconomic landscape that evolved from apartheid spatial planning and a mining legacy that remains largely unchanged.

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You’ll find previous episodes here.