‘Coal-dependent South Africa struggles to make just energy transition real’ 11 November 2025

In the coal towns of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the promise of South Africa’s “just transition” feels like a distant dream. While government plans speak of a fair shift to clean energy and justice for those harmed by coal, in places like Dannhauser and Mtubatuba, families are still choking on coal dust, activists say they’re being threatened for speaking out, and new mining applications keep arriving. Communities say the country’s transition is happening everywhere except where coal is dug from the earth. In a country where 74% of the electricity is made from burning coal, the transition to renewable energy has created a fraught environment where workers who rely on coal jobs are pitted against community members whose health and livelihoods have been damaged by coal dust, blasting and water contamination from mines and power stations.

…The Ikwezi mine’s operations have forced some families off their land, damaged the homes of others who were able to remain, overtaken grazing land, and polluted water sources for nearly 39,000 people in the surrounding area. In April 2025, police broke up a protest against damage to water pipes and the flooding of the only route to the local clinic and schools, shooting and injuring five people. Khumalo points to new coal prospecting applications as proof that the promised transition is little more than talk. “The government has made promises to the rest of the world that they are getting rid of coal but they are not doing that,” he says…The Tendele mine lies just 500 meters (just over a quarter of a mile) from houses. Blasting disrupts schools and cracks walls. “When you slaughter a cow you can’t eat the intestines because they are full of coal dust,” Nkosi says. “People are coughing because they are inhaling contaminated air. The rainwater we harvest is full of coal dust.”

…Khumalo says SEJ now focuses on creating awareness of coal mine problems in the 16 villages where Ikwezi has been granted permits to mine but hasn’t started. Traditional leaders have signed communal land away to mines without consulting communities, creating tension between residents who depend on the land and those who support the chiefs’ decisions, hoping for jobs. “We believe people need to take their own decisions to identify what kind of development they need,” Khumalo says. SEJ is also pushing for green jobs, encouraging young people to attend renewable-energy training. Khumalo says the government must create work rehabilitating abandoned coal mines if it’s serious about a just transition. More than 50 closed mines in KwaZulu-Natal still pollute communities decades after mining ended. “Mining has destroyed a huge area of land. In most cases the mines do not rehabilitate correctly and we cannot plant crops. Rehabilitation could make a difference and create jobs,” Khumalo says.