Present-day dispossession

At the centre of this account is coal, South Africa's main source ofenergy. Its invasive extraction and burning ranks the country 12thof the highest emitters of greenhouse gases. It degrades theenvironment and contributes to climate change. Another dark side ofcoal and capitalism is illuminated in this book, revealing thedispossession of African communities. Consequently, coal extractionimpels the resuscitation of dispossession as an experiencehistorically related to the colonial and apartheid periods in SouthAfrica. Dispossession during both periods describes the loss of landthrough legislative interventions and processes that led to the ofproletarianisation and de-agrarianisation of African communities.The motive for creating this system is important, but so are theintricate ways in which people were removed. The mechanisms ofdispossession linger, but in more sophisticated ways – more oftenthan not facilitated by gaps in the reformed laws and involve, atbest, indirect coercion and, at worst, violence and death.

In this book, I discuss accounts of dispossession on privateagricultural farmland, mined by Glencore colliery mine inMpumalanga, and customary land in KwaZulu-Natal, where Tendelemining company currently operates. Private agricultural farmland inSouth African history is synonymous with dispossession. Its violentmaking is the foundation of land reform in the post-transitionalperiod. As a space, it offered insight into the fluid constructionand unmaking of home through work, sweat and blood, but also throughancestral connections to the land, generally speaking – and not onlythe farmland that labour tenants were assigned. Their struggles,however, are not different from those of the chiefs’ subjects oncustomary land. Both labour tenant families and communities oncommunal land hold informal land rights and precarious tenuresecurity and are consequently susceptible to dispossession. Thismakes the experience of the loss of homes, land and ancestral gravesin both areas equally grievous.

For example, in both case studies, there were no adequateconsultations about mining and the relocations. Glencore reached itsagreement with the farm owners in Tweefontein and other farms,whereas Tendele concluded its plans with the Mpukunyoni TribalAuthority in Somkhele. But what is the role of traditional authorityin South Africa if the system does not represent the interests ofcommunities in rural areas and does not negotiate and facilitate thebeneficiation of mining in local communities?