If the transition to a green economy simply replaces one form of exploitation with another, then the world has failed. The Church, standing with the poor and with creation, calls for a transition to green economy rooted in justice, reparation, and the protection of our common home. As Pope Francis would remind us: “We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental” (Laudato Si’, 139).
The Mining of Coal for the Carbon Economy: Demanding Human Rights and Justice
For decades, coal fueled South Africa’s economy, as well as industries in the Global North. Yet this came at a heavy price. Workers who gave their lives to the mines now bear the scars of serious health violations. These workers have asked the Church for pastoral accompaniment as they demand reparation from Glencore, Anglo-American and other powerful mining companies.
In their struggle, coal workers are not only asking for compensation but also for the restoration of dignity and justice, values at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching.
The Mining of Critical Minerals for the Green Economy: Demanding Human Rights and Justice
At the same time, communities near mines for critical minerals—such as cobalt, lithium, and platinum—are raising their voices. These minerals are essential for the technologies driving the green transition: electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels. Yet the people living in mining zones often endure displacement, ecological harm, and violations of their basic rights.
These communities have turned to the Church for pastoral accompaniment, calling for a strong human rights framework to guide the new era of green industrialization. Their cry resonates with Pope Francis’s call: “A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (Laudato Si’, 49).
Communities living mining areas for critical minerals needed for green technology are not adequately protected from environmental and human rights harms
The Proposed Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Strengths and Weaknesses for Protecting Communities in Africa’s Critical Minerals Sector The extraction of critical minerals in Africa has become a focal point of global energy transition policies. As demand for cobalt, lithium, and rare earth minerals surges, African communities bear the disproportionate costs of environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and...
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The Demand for reparation of coal mine workers in South Africa: A perspective from Laudato Si and Ecological Debt
1. Introduction: Situating Ecological Debt The demand for reparations by coal mine workers in South Africa cannot be reduced to a narrow legal or medical question. It is a deeply ethical and theological issue, implicating questions of justice, human dignity, ecological responsibility, and the moral obligations of the global north. Coal miners in South Africa, the vast majority...
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The demand for reparation for the coal mine workers in South Africa is a demand for the global north to repay its ecological debt
The demand for reparation for the coal mine workers in South Africa is a demand for the global north to repay its ecological debt For more than a century, coal has been the backbone of South Africa’s economy. It has powered our industries, fueled our homes, and generated the electricity that made modern life possible. But it has...
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Demanding Reparation for Coal Sick Mine Workers in South Africa: A Catholic Social Teaching Perspective
Demanding Reparation for Coal Sick Mine Workers in South Africa: A Catholic Social Teaching Perspective Abstract Coal mining has historically played a central role in South Africa’s industrial and economic development, yet it has left a legacy of illness, poverty, and social marginalization among miners and their communities. Many coal mine workers suffer from occupational diseases such as...
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The Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development releases a document on ecological debt and reparative justice
Jubilee 2025: Remission of the Ecological Debt In recent decades, the concept of ecological debt has emerged as an effective means of interpreting environmental injustices on a global scale. Traditionally, the term ‘debt’ has been associated with the financial condition of many developing countries indebted to industrialised economies. However, this perspective overlooks a fundamental aspect: throughout history, on...
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Sick coal mine-workers: Stories from the “praying and healing our stories” sessions
Allowing God to Heal Our Memories Through Stories Below, you’ll find the personal stories shared by coal mine workers during the Healing of Memories sessions. In these gatherings, participants shared their experiences with one another and lifted them up in prayer, asking God to bring healing and transform their painful memories of injustice into stories of hope....
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The fact that there are hundreds of mine workers affected by black lung disease is itself an indictment on corporate greed
- "For decades, coal mining companies allowed their workers to be exposed to unsafe levels of coal dust. The mines need to take both ethical and legal responsibility for the sick miners", said His Exc. Mgr. Abel Gabuza, Bishop of Kimberly and President of the "Justice and Peace" Episcopal Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference in...
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Countries in the Global North who benefited from coal mining in South Africa should pay ecological debt to sick mine workers.
While walking very slowly to enter his home in Embalenhle in South Africa, Lindane Mkwanazi tries to cough to clear his throat, but immediately a stabbing pain in his chest attacks him; she tries to hold her breath so as not to feel the pain and continues finding relief only when she manages to sit down to rest....
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Catholic Church in South Africa Seeking Ecological Reparation for the coal mine workers in South Africa
The Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) is working to ensure that victims of human rights violations perpetrated by powerful multinational corporations in the country get justice. These include ex-miners suffering from a variety of life-threatening health complications owing to exposure to dangerous substances, victims of poor food handling and those who were involved...
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Church thanks legal firms at the heart of the reparation case against coal mining companies
RICHARD SPOOR INC. (RSI) RSI attorneys have harnessed South Africa’s legal system for more than 30 years to defend the rights and interests of vulnerable, marginalised individuals and groups as a public interest private law firm specializing in complex litigation. Through landmark judgments, pioneering settlements and targeted litigation, RSI has become a leader in occupational health and safety,...
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Coal mining companies have opposed the certification application
While thousands of former and current coal miners have joined a class action against companies regarding occupational lung diseases, spearheaded by the Catholic Church and Richard Spoor attorney, the companies have signalled they plan to oppose the certification application. Richard Spoor Incorporated (RSI) said on Tuesday that its class action against coal companies had been bolstered by thousands...
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Countries and mining companies that benefited from coal mining in South Africa should pay ecological debt
The Southern African Bishops Conference has started a class action lawsuit in the High Court of South Africa against mining companies BHP, its subsidiary South32, and Seriti, a South African company. The Church is initially representing 17 former and current coal miners afflicted by lung disease. In South Africa, many former mine workers are no longer affiliated with...
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Mining should respect the sanctity of creation and dignity of workers
Vatican Radio) The Justice and Peace Commission for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has spoken out against plans by mining companies to retrench thousands as the mining sector in South Africa grapples with a deepening slide in commodity prices and rising costs. “We applaud the Minister of Mineral Resources for the initiative that he has taken...
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Church in South Africa demands ecological justice for coal mine workers
The Catholic Church said on Wednesday it is shepherding a class action against mining companies in South Africa on behalf of coal miners who suffered from lung disease. The Southern African Bishops Conference said lawyers filed papers with South Africa's High Court on Tuesday. "Very often ex-mine workers are no longer members of trade unions and therefore lack...
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Coal mining companies deny historic justice for sick mine workers
The mistreatment of mine workers during the apartheid era continues to have far-reaching consequences. Sick and dying mine workers are holding on to life as their legal battle, now raging for more than a decade, continues. Humans Rights Day in South Africa is commemorated annually on 21 March in remembrance of the 69 people protesting against apartheid “pass”...
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Catholic Church leads class action for lung-diseased South African coal miners against major coal mining firms.
The Catholic Church said on Wednesday it is shepherding a class action against mining companies in South Africa on behalf of coal miners who suffered from lung disease. The Southern African Bishops Conference said lawyers filed papers with South Africa’s High Court on Tuesday. “Very often ex-mine workers are no longer members of trade unions and therefore lack...
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Exploited South African Miners Turn to Churches for Help
Like other widows of South African mine workers, Jane Anele was doubly wronged by the industry. The 58-year-old lost her husband to coal mining a decade ago, and his employer never paid the family his dues. “My husband died of lung disease from digging coal for 20 years, and his pension has never been paid because the coal...
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Church in South Africa Holds Exhibition to Help Sick Miners Get Justice
JOHANNESBURG, JUNE 7, 2019 (CISA)-The Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) organized an exhibition to give a voice to sick miners who will be involved in a court case against Sasol and other coal mining companies. “Over the decades, thousands of ex-miners who are sick as a result of coal mining and...
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Coal mining companies refusing to pay ecological debt to sick dying mine workers
A Catholic Priest in South Africa is lamenting the failure of some mining companies in the country to compensate miners who suffer and have died from silicosis and tuberculosis caused by exposure to high levels of silica dust while working in the gold mines. In a Tuesday, August 23 statement, the Director of the Justice and Peace Commission...
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The Catholic Church demands payment for ecological debt for the poor
The Catholic church in South Africa began shepherding a class action against the country’s three major coal mining firms seeking compensation for sick former workers and their families who died as a result of lung disease and other associated illnesses. The outcome of this multi-million dollar lawsuit against the mining firms — South32, BHP Billiton and Seriti Power...
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Bishops in Southern Africa File Lawsuit against Coal International Mining Company
Members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) have, through their Justice and Peace Commission (JPC), launched a class action lawsuit against the Anglo American Group, seeking recourse for sick miners and families of workers who died after contracting pneumoconiosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In a Wednesday, October 25 statement JPC officials say the lawsuit filed by Richard Spoor attorneys in the...
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SA Catholic Church Assists Sick Miners Claiming Reparation from Australian Mining Giant South 32
The Catholic Church in South Africa is helping sick mineworkers to launch a class action lawsuit and demand justice against global mining company South32. Filed in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Local Division, by Richard Spoor Attorneys, this application for certification of a class action seeks recourse for sick miners and the families of workers who...
Read moreCatholic Church supports class action for coal mine workers to see justice in this lifetime
The Catholic Church is supporting a class action against three mining giants in a quest for dignity and access to healthcare for the mine workers whose working lives were spent building wealth for others. The Catholic Church believes that in the suffering of the poor working class, we encounter the suffering face of Christ. This has led us...
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South African bishops file class-action suit against mining company over black lung disease
A 65-year-old man who was diagnosed with lung disease after working in one of the mines from 1981 until 2016, Jan Nkosi, said in a statement that he experiences constant chest pain. “At night I have to sleep in a particular position to try to relieve the chest pain,” Nkosi, who is named in the application, added. “My...
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Catholic Church in South Africa begins class action against coal mining firms
The church says it filed the case after it was approached by mine workers for help. The Catholic Church says it is shepherding a class-action lawsuit through the courts against mining companies in South Africa on behalf of coal miners with lung disease. The Southern African Bishops Conference said on Wednesday that lawyers filed papers with South Africa’s...
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Catholic Church in South Africa helps sick miners to bring class action against coal mining giants
The Catholic Bishops and the Richard Spoor attorneys are launching a class-action lawsuit against South African coal mining companies to help sick miners suffering from lung disease. The class action is against global mining company South32 seeking legal remedies for sick miners and the families of workers who died due to coal mine dust lung disease (CMDLD) in...
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Waste picker’s struggle to make ends meet during lockdown
By Kimberly Mutandiro “The life of a waste picker is hard especially during this time of the Coronavirus,” says Elizabeth Moloi. She survives on collecting waste material which she sells for a few Rands in town. Before the lockdown she used to sell her material making R300 every one to two weeks managing to buy a few provisions...
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Used, abused and discarded – former coal miners from Limpopo launch class action against Exxaro
‘There are occupational exposure limits that the mines are obligated to comply with, but we have seen across the board that these limits have not been complied with,’ says an attorney from Richard Spoor Inc, which is suing coal mining companies for failing to protect workers. Coal miners from the rural district of Vhembe in Limpopo have launched...
Read moreMining should be banned in water catchment areas
The drought in Gauteng has once again drawn attention to the ongoing issue of water scarcity in South Africa. Stan Muyebe OP examines the impact of mining in areas that are recognised as important sources of water. He calls for private and public ecological conversion by putting pressure on government to implement policies that better protect this precious...
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From a Rubbish Dump to a Thriving Community Garden
What was once a desolate rubbish dump in woodlands slum settlement in Kwazulu Natal has undergone a remarkable transformation thanks to the tireless efforts and green thumbs of a dedicated group of young women. Where piles of trash and debris once littered the landscape, a lush and bountiful vegetable garden now spans an area the size of...
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