Informal settlements and mine development: Reflections from South Africa's periphery

Abstract

Historically, mining companies worldwide provided housing and developed towns to accommodate their employees. At the end of the 1980s this approach became less prevalent and attempts were made to mitigate the effects of mine development and mine closure on communities living near the mines. Permanent settlement in mining towns urgently needed to be minimized. Since the advent of democracy, South African policy has moved in the opposite direction, shifting the emphasis to creating integrated communities and encouraging home ownership. Despite this policy shift, however, mines continue to influence local housing conditions. One direct outcome has been the development of informal settlements. We surveyed 260 informal settlement households in Postmasburg, a small and remotely located town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. We found that because they employ contract workers and thus arouse expectations of employment, the mines here contribute extensively to the development of informal settlements. But local factors also contribute, and the functional role of informal settlements as a form of housing that supports mobility should not be underestimated. We also found that both municipal and mining company policies for informal settlements were inadequate. Finally, we found that low-income informal settlers not associated with mine employment suffered the highest levels of social disruption. mining, mining towns, informal settlements, housing policy.

Impact of mining projects on water and sanitation infrastructures and associated child health outcomes: a multi-country analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in sub-Saharan Africa

“…The positive impacts of mining projects on water and sanitation infrastructures were less seen among the poorer households, particularly for access to modern sanitation. Poor households in mining areas potentially constitute of a selected group of people that remains poor despite overall economic development or include migrants that settle in informal dwellings with particularly low access to water and sanitation infrastructures [ 18 , 40 , 41 ]. Hence, the poor living in mining areas may differ from people living in poor households elsewhere [ 40 ].…”

Social aspects in the process of mine closure: evolution and avenues for future research agenda

“…Cole & Broadhurst (2020), on the other hand, cite the social and labour plans that are a requirement of mining in South Africa, which plays an important role as part of the strategy to achieve an SLO; however, they limit themselves to only mentioning the concept. In a similar vein, other articles submit that social and labour plans in South Africa have practically become the social licence itself (Marais 2013;Marais et al 2017Marais et al , 2018a.…”

The regional implications of just transition in the world's most coal-dependent economy: The case of Mpumalanga, South Africa

“…In 2011 the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers programme committed to 92 projects, and by 2015 one third or 2 GW of these were on stream (equivalent to 2% of total electricity generating capacity) (Baker, 2017). The long term goal is to raise renewables to 40% of energy requirements (McEwan, 2017;Marais et al, 2018). To put things in perspective, South Africa would need to install 5 GW of renewable energy capacity very year to 2050 (BusinessTech, 2022a) if the country is to meaningfully transition away from coal by that year and cope with expected growth in .…”