SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Mining is South Africa’s historical breadbasket and it has brought great economic wealth to the nation. It has equally been accompanied by giant environmental and social baggage in the form of social inequalities and ills, the apartheid machinery and, of course, environmental injustices. A considerable group of historical mining beneficiaries have exited and continue to exit the industry in South Africa, taking with them massive wealth and leaving behind the scourge of a broken labour systems, social decay, poverty, and, of course, the abandoned and unmanned mine shafts holding billions of litres of acid mine drainage (AMD). This study interrogates and juxtaposes historical with current AMD intervention frameworks, including legal, policy and regulatory systems. It engages with the narrative of why such frameworks (if they exist) have not been practically translated into responses that address the issue. It also engages with the conundrum of who should ideally take responsibility for the current state of affairs. In the process, the paper contemplates the role of the South African Constitution, the Mineral Petroleum Resources Act and the National Environmental Management Act and the National Water Act, which are, in themselves, progressive environmental frameworks.