MORE than 50 women gathered at an anti-coal mining exchange last week in Johannesburg to share their experiences and practical solutions in standing their ground against coal mining conglomerates.
South Africa is the seventh largest coal producer globally and the largest producer in Africa.
Rural women have been identified as being most affected by coal extraction, having to shoulder the burden of its negative impacts.
It is women who are responsible for tilling the soil to grow vegetables, so when land is polluted through coal mining, they must find alternative ways to feed their families.
Similarly, when water supplies are polluted through coal mining, women must walk for hours in search of non-contaminated water supplies.
When family members fall ill from working in coal mines or from coal-related pollution, it is the women who nurse them back to health.
Women from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique joined others from KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng at the week-long southern African exchange, which included field trips to affected areas, including Zululand’s Somkhele and Fuleni mines.
The Somkhele mine is the largest opencast anthracite mine in the world and surrounding communities are suffering its effects, including cracked houses, contaminated water sources and injuries from flying debris after blasting.
The Fuleni communities are in the midst of their battle against the proposed Fuleni anthracite mine.
Apart from providing opportunities for women to share their stories, the field trips helped women generate ideas to stand up for themselves and their communities against coal mining corporations.
At the end of the exchange, the women reportedly felt less isolated and more motivated to fight their struggles at home.
They resolved to mobilise other women in their communities and forming wider alliances.
WoMin, a regional feminist alliance which unifies African women in the fight against resource extraction, seeks to advance alternatives from the perspective of the majority of Africa’s citizens – rural women – for a non-destructive, women-centred agenda.
WoMin’s Samantha Hargreaves said, ‘Peasant and working class women across Africa stand at the interface between human beings and the planet, yet their perspectives and work are invisible, unsupported and undervalued. If we are to save the planet, women’s voices and development needs must [be made] centre stage.’
