The launch of Dineo Skosana’s No Last Place to Rest: Coal Mining and Dispossession in South Africa, hosted by The Society, Work and Politics Institute, with Wits University Press.
Dineo Skosana in conversation with Adv. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Ms Mbonwa, and chaired by Niren Tolsi. Tuesday 15 April 2025, the Humanities Graduate Centre Seminar Room (East Campus, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg).
To purchase the book please visit Wits University Press.
About the book:
An ethnographic account of the experiences and resistance of displaced communities that are affected by the expansion of coal mining operations in post-apartheid South Africa. It also offers a critical analysis of the legal and policy frameworks that enable their exploitation.
No Last Place to Rest: Coal Mining and Dispossession in South Africa is an exploration of the ongoing struggles faced by families in the Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa whose lives have been upended by the relentless expansion of coal mining operations. These regions, burdened with the task of fulfilling the nation’s energy needs and boosting the country’s economy, witness daily the harsh realities of dispossession that extend far beyond the mere loss of property.
Dineo Skosana presents a compelling argument that dispossession remains a present-day reality and crisis. She challenges the narrow perspective that equates land loss in material and economic terms only. Skosana considers the impact of grave relocations—a common occurrence in these mining-dominated locales— and the profound spiritual anguish and dehumanisation communities endure as their lands are excavated.
This book offers a rich ethnographic account of the experiences, struggles and resistance of the affected communities as well as a critical analysis of the legal and policy frameworks that enable their exploitation. In relation to the ‘land question’ in South Africa, No Last Place to Rest presents deep insights for communities, activists and government sectors acting in support of social justice and redress.
There will be a series of book launches in Johannesburg and across the country.
