'Encroaching Risks for Mining Activists' 11 January, 2021

When the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network recognised 65-year-old activist Fikile Ntshangase as its defender of the year in December, the grandmother, who had been living with her 11-year-old grandson in the rural KwaZulu-Natal village of Ophondweni near Mtubatuba, was unable to collect her award. She had been assassinated at her home in October. In a country witnessing deepening rifts between environmental activists begging for sustainable, ethical mining and a growing number of unemployed, desperate for a livelihood, Carte Blanche investigates what Ntshangase’s murder signifies for the activists still embroiled in the fight against ever-encroaching coal excavation near their homes.