Kaya 959 Reporter
Over decades in South Africa, many people have been displaced from their land because of mines in the area, which has led to the desecration of ancestral graves by mine owners.
When these relocations or displacements occur it becomes more than just the people who are alive, it is also the unfortunate desecration of ancestral graves of those communities.
Phemelo Motene spoke to Dr Dineo Skosana, a researcher at the Society, Work and Politics Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand who gave a broader view of what happens when commmmunities get displaced.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
Skosana gave a background of her research in various places in Mpumalanga.
She said the hasty removal of individuals and their departed loved ones demonstrates that dehumanisation continues even after death and that people in mining-affected areas regard mines as symbols of loss.
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She spoke about how chiefs are at the centre of this scourge of the desecration of ancestral graves by mines is an act of spiritual dispossession.
“When the mining companies come in, they usually table the benefits for the chief, they know that the chiefs are the custodians of the land.”
“They will have an agreement with the chief, and by speaking to the chief they have spoken with everyone in the community.”
“…The chief usually gives the mine owners anything that they want because he is looking at the benefits they provide him. A house built for him by the mines, having a road in the rural community, “
Skosana spoke about how her research looked at how colonialism contributed to the dispossession of people’s land through coal mining in places like eMalahleni, Mpumalanga, and Somkhele in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as other regions where mining occurred.
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