Legacy of the Mine

For more than a century, South Africa’s demand for gold, diamonds, coal and platinum has gone from strength to strength, often shifting in accordance with the political economy and the availability of ¬foreign markets. Mineral exploitation by means of cheap and disposable labour has brought about national economic growth, making the mining industry the largest industrial sector in South Africa. Recognised globally for its abundance and variety of mineral resources, which account for a significant proportion of world production and reserves. Originally drawn to the environmental, historical and current social aspects of the gold mining industry around Johannesburg. It became evident that my subjects did not always directly reflect the legacy of mining-based pollution; rather, the concept of ‘the mine’ became a thread that helped frame the work. ‘The mine’, irrespective of the particular minerals extracted, is central in understanding societal change across the country. This enabled me to channel my conception of ‘the mine’ into visual representations that gave agency to these forgotten communities beyond the peripheries of the city. The countless stories of personal suffering are brought to the surface and the legacy of ‘the mine’ is revealed. This is apparent through land rendered unfit for alternative land uses such as ecotourism and agriculture, through public health crises within local communities unequipped to cope with the burden of air, land and water pollution, and through the disruptive influence of historical labour exploitation impacting on family structures and cultural positioning. These photographs provide agency to those whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by mining processes and the long-term environmental ramifications, to expose the far-reaching neglect by the successive governments and corporate bodies that have driven the mining industry, to explore how people have coped within their circumstances, and to sensitise a public saturated with the idea of ‘climate change’ by focusing on the local problems that we can actually see. Therefore challenging the ideological portrayal of ‘the mine’ as a symbol of progress, prosperity and wealth. My subjects thus become symbols of the struggle for environmental and social justice in the country. Even though a project of this nature is far-reaching and covers a large expanse of the South African landscape, it has been tied together through microcosms of visual narration of untold stories. By congregating a disparate network of people and places, I hope to provide a space for them to be heard and for the magnitude of the damage to be felt. Exploring the consequences of mining on South Africa’s land and people, I am unsettled by what lies ahead. The need for economic growth cannot be ignored but neither can the sustainability of the earth and water for generations to come. Exploitation, corruption and greed threaten the land, the very thread that connects all South Africans. Once a symbol of wealth and a formidable force in the development of South Africa, the mine today reveals the scars of neglect and decay and as such poses an irreversible threat to our society.