Coal-mining relocations from agricultural farmland to Makausetownship, 2012–2016

After Mr Thankga recalled his experience, everyone in the roommurmured in agreement, then it was immediately silent, as if eachperson was recalling their own experience. He then explained thatsoon after his relocation, his livestock was transported about threekilometres away from Makause (the new residential site). As aresult, some of it was stolen, while some died. Sombrely, he asked,‘Manje ngiphile ngani?’ (Now, howmust I survive?). The silence in the room continued. At this point,I looked down to wipe a tear away. It was the old man's sadness andhis tone of disappointment that choked my voice as I asked follow-upquestions. My emotions completely disregarded an unspoken rule thatan ethical and objective researcher should not display her feelingsand that crying during interviews is an offence. I became worriedthat the participants may, from that point onwards, select what theydisclosed to me, considering my expression of empathy. However, theycontinued to share their experiences as if it was therapeutic.

The men and women of multiple generations who sat in the intervieware part of the 120 families who were relocated from neighbouringfarms in Ogies, located south-west of eMalahleni (formerly Witbank),by what was then called Xstrata PLC, for the TweefonteinOptimisation open-cast mining project.