Local Responses to Mine Closure in South Africa

Sethulego Matebesi is Associate Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa. His previous publications include Civil Strife Against Local Governance: Dynamics of Community Protests in South Africa (2017) and Social Licensing and Mining in South Africa (Routledge, 2020). Lochner Marais is Professor of Development Studies at the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa, and an executive editor of the newly established journal Research Directions: Mine Closure and Transitions. He is also an honorary professor at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Australia. He has published The Social Impacts of Mine Closure in South Africa: Housing Policy and Place Attachment (Routledge, 2022). Verna Nel is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She is also qualified as a town and regional planner at Wits University, South Africa.

1 Understanding mine closure: global and national trends 2 A theoretical framework for understanding the social aspects of mine closure 3 Mine closure policies and strategies in South Africa: a critical review 4 A scoping review of the literature on mine closure 5 Miners’ lives after retrenchment 6 West Rand: decline in South Africa’s economic heartland 7 Matjhabeng: decline in the urban periphery 8 Kleinzee: looking for a new dawn amidst the diamond dust 9 Koffiefontein mine downscaling: socioeconomic and infrastructural consequences 10 Alexkor and the Richtersveld community: unlikely partners to mine diamonds together 11 Tshikondeni: mine closure in a deeply rural area 12 Emalahleni’s just transition: from closure to collaboration? 13 Rustenburg: the struggle to go beyond mining 14 Rustenburg: coping despite mine decline 15 A framework for understanding the social aspects of mine closure in South Africa