Heidi Swart

CCTV footage from the day an Ethiopian activist was gunned down in Johannesburg appears to not exist

The Bapo Ba Mogale community claims that the mining giant Lonmin has fudged its profits and owes them millions in royalties, writes Heidi Swart.

The community that owns the land mined by Lonmin is planning an application to cancel mining rights of the world’s third-largest platinum producer.

A stretch of farmland that could prove vital to Cape Town’s food security is threatened by development, illegal dumping and informal settlements.

Wildcat strikes in the mining sector have set a new trend that could result in the unravelling of the formal system of collective bargaining.

According to some Marikana miners, they are no better off than before the strike, after Lonmin this week offered striking workers a 22% pay hike.

Thuli Madonsela this week visited the Bapo Ba Mogale community to hear grievances about the North West government’s alleged mismanagement of money.

Residents of Karee hostel in Marikana tell of police action days before the massacre, at the time their friend disappeared.

Heidi Swart spent time in Johannesburg’s courts to experience how cases are handled – and delayed.

Families in Pondoland, a traditional source of labour, bury their men and primary earners who worked at Lonmin.

Before the Marikana massacre, the M&G’s Heidi Swart joined rock-drill operators at the bottom of a Lonmin shaft to see conditions there firsthand.

The temperature can reach 45C underground and workers are at risk of heat stroke. They wear sleeveless vests and their bodies smeared with dirt.

In Kagiso, as in so many other settlements in South Africa, time moves on but the appalling conditions persist. Heidi Swart reports.

Cash-strapped groups plead for more funds: Subsidies have fallen so short of the needs of NGOs that many face imminent closure, writes Heidi Swart.

Throughout the platinum-rich North West, mining communities such as the Bapo Ba Mogale live in poverty. Heidi Swart reports on their story.