A new analysis of historical survey data from 115 households affected by the Somkhele opencast coal mine in northern KwaZulu-Natal has found that they have suffered more than R80 million in quantified losses to land, crops, livestock and water since mining began.
The researchers calculate that the R3.65m in compensation has been paid by Tendele Coal Mining represented 4.7% of the quantified immediate losses among the surveyed households.
The findings are contained in Just Compensation: An Asset-Based Livelihoods Approach to Calculating Loss and Damage and Rehabilitation, which was produced by researchers from King’s College London and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Commissioned by pro bono law clinic All Rise Attorneys, the report was conducted by Sarah Bracking, a professor of climate and society in the department of geography at King’s College London, and Dr Danford Chibvongodze of the School of Social Science, Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
It uses data from 115 affected households surveyed in 2018 and an “asset-based livelihoods approach” to measure loss and damage to land, crops, livestock, cultural assets, ecological systems and health, both immediately and over 20 years.
The longer-term calculation includes the income streams households could have earned from those assets had they not been lost.
The Somkhele coal mine, operated by Tendele Coal Mining, began mining in the community in 2006, with clear effects emerging in 2007.
Of the 115 households surveyed, 106, or 92%, had owned a combined 270 hectares of land. After the onset of mining activities, the households were left with 68ha, a reduction of 202ha, or 75%.
Using a range of approaches to value the land, the researchers suggest R60.6m as a “good approximation” of the land loss.
Crop production also declined sharply. The report calculates that total crop yields fell from 137 tonnes before mining to 7.6 tonnes afterwards, a 94% reduction. Maize production fell by 97%.Seventy households reported producing a combined 76 tonnes of maize before the mine, compared with 2.3 tonnes afterwards. The researchers conservatively calculate cumulative lost crop income at R8.17m between 2007 and 2018.
Livestock holdings also fell substantially, from 7 574 animals to 2 643, representing a 65% decline. The report calculates the value of all livestock losses at nearly R11.9m.
For cattle alone, 82 respondents reported owning cattle before the mine, while 73 provided monetary valuations. The researchers calculate a loss of R9.82m in cattle value, with the average affected household losing 15 cattle.
The R3.65m in total compensation recorded in the survey was equivalent to 30.7% of the immediate livestock losses alone.
Bracking said the loss of livestock also represented the loss of future income and household security.
“When a family here loses its cattle, it doesn’t just lose those animals,” she said. “It loses the calves those animals would have had, the milk, the savings, the security — whole future streams of income.
“Standard compensation practice prices none of that, which is how you end up with a mine paying under 3% of what people actually lost.”
Only 25 of the 115 households, or 22%, recorded receiving compensation. The report said 58% recorded receiving none, while there was no response from the remainder.
The researchers also documented losses that are not easily reduced to monetary values. Households reported the destruction or relocation of graves, disrupted access to 15 indigenous plants used for food and medicine, damage to housing, impaired water access and increased illness. The report records that households incurred at least R46 388 in costs buying water after sources became contaminated or were fenced off.
Mining-related losses, it said, also included the erosion of cultural practices and spiritual relationships with the land. The losses do not lend themselves easily or ethically to monetary quantification.
Chibvongodze said the findings showed that the households had possessed significant productive assets before mining began.
“The families we surveyed were not poor before the mine arrived. They had land, herds and harvests they sold to their neighbours,” he said.
“What the data shows is a community whose asset base was dis-mantled in a decade, with almost nothing put back.”
The researchers project livestock losses from 2018 to 2038 and maize losses from 2019 to 2028, bringing the total calculated loss to about R157.25m. The compensation recorded represents about 2.3% of the calculated losses.
No future monetary estimate is provided for land, ecosystem services, water, indigenous plants or other cultural and social losses.
Bracking said the monetary calculations represented only part of the harm documented by the study.
“Assessing Tendele mine’s loss and damage in Somkhele means living just a small part of the pain and trauma of the affected community, its animals and the environment around,” she said.Bracking said the impacts reported by the community included premature livestock deaths, homes damaged by blasting and respiratory problems among residents.
The report sought to draw attention to forms of harm that conventional compensation calculations could overlook, she said. “The economic, social, cultural and spiritual harm is non-ending and yet the mine has eschewed their dignity and paid derisory compensation.
“Our report lays bare some of this pain in order to draw attention to how rural people can be cast aside and their rights disregarded in the mining economy.”
The report concludes that the 115 households experienced severe and ongoing loss and damage. The effects extend beyond the surveyed households into the broader community.The report’s foreword by South African Human Rights Commission commissioner Philile Ntuli places the findings within the wider history of mining in South Africa.
“Too often, the impact of mining is measured through production, employment and revenue, while the deeper relationships between people, land, water, culture, memory and belonging receive less attention,” Ntuli wrote. The findings resonate with a truth “that many affected communities have long expressed: that when land is transformed, the consequences extend beyond economics. They may include disruptions to cultural practice, ancestral relationships, indigenous knowledge systems, ecological balance and social cohesion.”
Ntuli said the report was not intended to determine legal liability or substitute for the functions of courts, regulatory authorities or other statutory institutions.
“Rather, it provides a carefully researched body of evidence that enriches public understanding and contributes to informed dialogue on the relationship between mining, development and human rights.”A separate afterword by University of Johannesburg academic Patrick Bond examines the climate costs associated with burning coal produced by the mine.
Bond estimates the wider climate damage from the mine’s coal since 2007 at about R687 billion, based on the social and economic costs associated with its carbon emissions.
He estimates more than $24.85bn in damage between 2007 and 2017 and about $14bn between 2018 and 2025, although the report describes the assumptions for the latter period as “very rough”.
The report calls on the government to engage with Tendele to ensure that affected families are compensated, remedies are implemented and rehabilitation is carried out.
In response to questions from the Mail & Guardian, Tendele said the King’s College analysis was based on historical surveys of 115 households undertaken around 2018.
It said the King’s researchers did not conduct the original interviews and that the surveys were originally conducted and owned by All Rise, which requested the project.
“Neither the researchers nor All Rise shared [the new report] with us and we have never been provided with the underlying 115 surveys or the methodology by which those households were selected.
“We can also confirm unequivocally that not a single Tendele employee or representative was contacted or approached by the researchers for information, verification or comment. Equally, not a single representative of the Mpukunyoni Traditional Council was approached or consulted.
“This is particularly surprising given the extensive legal, regulatory and public participation processes concerning the mine. More than 15 000 pages of documentation are presently before the minister, following a comprehensive public participation process involving more than 32 meetings with affected communities and stakeholders.”
The company said it had copied Denis Sibuyi, the attorney representing the Traditional Council and community, into its response so that he could independently obtain and review the report and respond on behalf of his clients. “We understand that neither the Traditional Council nor its representatives had previously seen the report.
Given the ongoing litigation, Tendele said it did not intend to comment further at this stage. It said it would review the report, its methodology and underlying source material before deciding whether a substantive response was appropriate.