Loss of land and the relocation of homes and black African ancestralgraves are prevalent in South Africa. The dispossession ofcommunities for coal mining is accelerated by South Africa'sdependence on fossil fuels for energy production. Coal extraction,burning and dependence remains high despite South Africa havingsigned the Paris Agreement in 2015 to reduce carbon emissions. Asthe country gears itself to decarbonise, mining corporationsscramble for mining rights to dig the abundant coal deposits in theprovinces of Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, threateninglocal communities’ land, heritage and constitutional rights in theprocess.

At this juncture, mining corporations, which exploit gaps in SouthAfrica's heritage, mineral and land rights laws, convey tocommunities that spiritual connections to land and to theirancestors will not keep the country's lights on and will not help togrow the economy. These capitalist-driven corporations, backed bythe state, therefore force impoverished communities to give up theirland for the sake of development. They make promises to localcommunities that the areas and their livelihoods will improveeconomically. However, the true beneficiaries, economically, are themining companies. As a result, coal is South Africa's paradox. Inthis book, I attempt to deepen the understanding of loss incoal-mined areas as South Africa finds itself in a coal energycrisis and, despite the states’ commitment to decarbonise,communities still find themselves displaced and detached from theirancestral lands and graves.

The meaning of land

No Last Place to Rest partly draws frommy doctoral study, which explored the contestations over gravesiteremovals by Glencore PLC for thermal coal on the Tweefontein farm,located in the east of the town Ogies in the Mpumalanga province(for a map of the area, see figure 2.1).

In 2013, I monitored the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Billfor the Land and Accountability Research Centre, then a part of theCentre for Law and Society at the University of Cape Town, and Ibecame curious about land and ancestral graves and theirsignificance to communities.