As the issue of mine closure and rehabilitation continues to confront South Africa’s mining sector, effective governance of mine closure and financial provision for rehabilitation plays a crucial role in enabling a healthy environment.

According to the latest report by the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), authored by CER mining programme head Tarisai Mugunyani, South Africa currently has about 6 100 abandoned mines, including at least 400 abandoned coal mines.

It notes that, despite being the heart of South Africa’s coal-producing region, fewer than six closure certificates were issued for mines in Mpumalanga between 2011 and 2016 – none of them for coal.

“The State faces extreme capacity and other challenges in meeting its obligations and mining companies continue to avoid or defer their rehabilitation responsibilities, leaving communities to bear the consequences,” the report says.

The report, titled ‘No more ghost towns: Lessons from Mpumalanga’s mine closure crisis’, thus examines the state of mine closure in Mpumalanga and highlights critical shortcomings in South Africa’s regulatory framework for financial provision.

“At the end of a mining cycle, there's supposed to be something that kicks in – that is rehabilitating the land, rehabilitating the area and ensuring that mining doesn't leave our communities worse than it found them,” said CER director Wandisa Phama at the report’s launch on May 22.

The report investigates the role of financial provisions in strengthening accountability for mine closures in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, where poorly managed, unrehabilitated and abandoned mines continue to cause environmental harm.

The CER posits that many communities in Mpumalanga remain burdened by the long-term consequences of inadequate mine closure planning and weak financial accountability.

This includes experiences of communities in Wesselton, Ermelo, in Mpumalanga, who, for instance, have fought for the rehabilitation of one coal mine abandoned since 2011.

Since the mine’s abandonment in 2011, the CER notes, the surrounding communities of Wesselton have faced ongoing environmental, health and safety risks. More than a decade after mining operations ceased, it explains that neither the company that owns the mine nor the government have taken visible steps to properly close or rehabilitate the site.

The report examines various topics, including the current state of financial provision for mine closures in Mpumalanga; the socioeconomic impacts of unrehabilitated and abandoned mines on surrounding communities; financial provision requirements and shortcomings in mine closure planning; as well as gaps, ambiguities and enforcement challenges within South Africa’s mine closure legal and policy framework.

The report also examines challenges relating to access to information in the mining sector, including findings from a 2021 Promotion of Access to Information Act request; and a case study on the Imbabala mine in Ermelo, illustrating the realities communities face when mine closures are not adequately planned or enforced.

“When we have engagements that relate to the lived experiences of people, it's very important that we keep the reality of those lived experiences at the forefront of our conversations,” said CER candidate legal practitioner Pettavia Madibana during the launch.