Mining as an extractive activity has the potential to promote sustainable economic growth in developing countries; however this largely depends on how the activities are regulated. Mining contributes to environmental pollution and degradation, and the social degeneration of local communities. Corporate social responsibility initiatives are often self-serving short-term programs that in the long term do not benefit mining communities. In this article, the mining, environment and community trilemma is investigated through the lens of what is happening in South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is argued that continued calls for nationalisation and indigenisation are the sequel of the failure of postcolonial mineral law and policy reforms. Regulatory continuity from colonial laws has seen mining companies continue to treat mineral rich developing countries as sources of raw materials. Little is done to develop the communities impacted by mining activities. Recommendations are made on how mining can support sustainable development without creating a cycle of poverty within mining communities. This can happen through effective regulation embedded within sustainable development, transparency and accountability and equitable access to mineral wealth.

Liberalisation of the mining sector in Africa in the 1980s: a developmental perspective. II.

Examines the evolution of the mining industry since the 1970s and considers how the political situation influences private and foreign investment.

The continent of Africa is rich in minerals needed by Western economies, but rather than forming the basis for economic growth the mining industry contributes very little to African development Investigating the impact of the 2003 Extractive Industries Review on a number of African countries, the contributors find the root of the problem in the controls imposed on the African countries by the IMF and World Bank. They aim to convince academics, governments and industry that regulation needs to be reformed to create a mining industry favourable towards social, economic and environmental development. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach and provides a historical perspective of each country, making it ideal for students of development studies and development organizations.

This book is a pacesetter in matters of mining and the environment in Africa from multidisciplinary and spatio-temporal perspectives. The book approaches mining from the perspectives of law, politics, archaeology, anthropology, African studies, geography, human ecology, sociology, history, economics and development. It interrogates mining and environment from the perspectives of customary law as well as from the perspectives of Euro-modern laws. In this sense, the book straddles precolonial, colonial and postcolonial mining and environmental perspectives. In all this, it maintains a Pan-Africanist perspective that also speaks to contemporary debates on African Renaissance and to the unity of Africa. From scrutinising the lived realities of African miners who are often insensitively and unjustly addressed as illegal miners, the book also interrogates transnational mining corporations; matters of corporate social responsibility as well as matters of tax evasions by transnational corporations whose commitment to accountability to African governments is questioned. With both theoretical chapters and chapter based on empirical studies on mining and the environment across the African continent, the book provides a much needed holistic, one stop shop for scholars, activists, researchers and policy makers who need a comprehensive treatise on African mining and the environment. The book comes at the right time when matters of African mining and environment are increasingly coming to the fore in the light of discourses about the new 21st century scramble for African resources, in which big transnational corporations and nations are jostling to suck Africa dry in their race to control planetary resources. It is a book that speaks to contemporary broader issues of (de-)coloniality and transformation of African minds and African environmental resources.