As the dust settles after the G20 summit in Johannesburg, a meeting that exposed the contradictions of a world in transition, South Africa finds itself facing another reckoning – one that lies not in geopolitics, but in the very rock on which the city is built. Johannesburg, the City of Gold, owes its existence to the mines. Yet mining also represents South Africa's most enduring wound. And at the centre of this paradox stands one company: Anglo American..

For more than a century, the name Anglo was synonymous with South Africa. It created jobs, built infrastructure and was a mainstay of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It helped industrialise the country, while also perpetuating dispossession, racially divided labour exploitation, environmental destruction and generational trauma.

Anglo American is not just a corporation in South African history, it is the original sin of South Africa's extractive economy.

Today, as Anglo restructures its global operations and sends signals that many interpret as a slow retreat from South Africa, the country faces a painful question:

Will Anglo American be allowed to leave without answering for the social, economic and environmental devastation it has left behind?

A century of prosperity and pain

At its peak, Anglo American owned nearly 60% of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange – a striking symbol of its dominance. The company introduced modern mining techniques, built hospitals and housing in some areas, and contributed to South Africa's early economic growth.

However, her legacy is inseparable from:

• forced evictions and displacement
• dangerous, racially segregated labour camps
• silicosis, tuberculosis and occupational diseases, which continue to afflict families to this day
• toxic landscapes, sinkholes and acidic mine water
• communities poisoned by dust, polluted rivers and abandoned mines

For many black South Africans, Anglo American is not just a mining giant – it is the architect of humiliation, indignity and structural violence.

BEE: partial exemption, convenient absolution

When the democratic state introduced the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme, Anglo American appeared to embrace the policy – distributing assets and supporting new companies led by black entrepreneurs. On the surface, this was progress.

Critics, however, argue that BEE had several sharp edges:

  1. created a small elite of beneficiaries, giving the impression of transformation
  2. relieved mining giants of historical liabilities by transferring old, risky assets to new entities or leaving them undercapitalised
  3. did not dismantle exploitative structures or secure sufficient funds for the reclamation of abandoned mines

In fact, BEE softened the public image of Anglo, while allowing the conglomerate to gradually externalise its costs – social, environmental and ethical.

Complicity and PIC responsibility

At the centre of the current debate is the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the administrator of civil servants' pensions and one of Anglo American's largest shareholders.

The PIC has the responsibility to:

• protect the savings of millions of South Africans
• promote responsible corporate behaviour
• ensure that the restructuring of Angla or its possible departure does not leave the country with neglected environmental commitments and abandoned communities

However, many argue that the PIC was too passive, too quiet, too interconnected. As Anglo prepares for restructuring and the planned takeover of Teck Resources, Parliament is now being asked to intervene.

The Centennial Debt Campaign: Communities Strike Back

On 26 November 2025, in the old Johannesburg Stock Exchange building on Diagonal Street – the symbolic ground zero of South African mining injustice – affected communities launched The Century Debt Campaign, during which they presented a formal petition to Parliament. The discussion was moderated by Christopher Rutledge, Executive Director of Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA).

Mametlwe Sebei, President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa and member of the National Executive Committee of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, and Reginald Letsholo, co-founder of the Tlou Mogale Foundation, added their views.

Community representatives shared their testimonies:

• families uprooted by forced eviction
• Health impacts of asbestos, silica dust, toxic tailings
• houses cracked by blasting
• contaminated rivers and soil, dead livestock
• a generation of economic exclusion, even though mining took place „behind their homes“

The petition demands:

• parliamentary oversight of the PIC
• review of the administration of the restructuring of Angla
• protection of community rights
• enforcement of historical environmental obligations

The campaign has already been endorsed by international organisations – from MiningWatch Canada and the London Mining Network to ACTSA – signalling a global appetite for accountability.

Why are the media silent? A reminder of corporate influence

Despite the historical significance of the event, several major South African media outlets decided not to report on it – a silence that speaks volumes about the continuing influence of mining conglomerates.

Nevertheless, the report could not be suppressed.

More than 10,000 people watched the live broadcast, distributed by independent and community platforms. South Africans are watching – and beginning to speak out.

Mining in the South African psyche: a story told in soap operas

Mining has a deep-rooted place in South African consciousness. When television arrived in the country, one of the first series was „The Villagers“, set in a mining environment.

After 1994, the iconic soap opera Isidingo continued to build the myth, portraying Johannesburg's wealth as tinsel that hid the victims who had fallen for that gold.

Culture reflected reality: mining giants are changing and adapting, but their shadow remains long – and often unquestioned.

Crisis or opportunity? The moment of reckoning

South Africa now stands at a crossroads.

If Anglo American leaves, it could be the final severing of the colonial umbilical cord. Painful – yes – but potentially liberating.

If approached with clarity and courage, a crisis can be turned into an opportunity:

• Create a new model of mining – clean, community-led, restorative
• strengthen public oversight of reclamation funds
• ensure that future licences require local assessment, not just extraction
• establish a transparent, accountable regime for the management of raw materials
• attract investors who understand that South Africa will no longer tolerate exploitation disguised as partnership

South Africans must decide whether it is worth holding on to the legacy of the British – both good and bad – at the cost of further burden.

Or whether letting go of the past will enable the country to write a new chapter – one based on dignity, justice and sustainable growth.

To conclude: learn a lesson, not pain again

Corporations the size of Anglo are notoriously difficult to hold accountable. History shows that even when faced with court rulings, they often survive institutions, governments and public pressure.

So how will South Africa achieve closure?

By striving for responsibility – without being paralysed by it.
By learning all the lessons, even if the compensation is only partial.
By building new mining investments on principles that Anglo never fully embraced:

• environmental justice
• community ownership
• local value creation
• transparentnost
• intergenerational fairness

Closing the deal here means taking the story into your own hands – not waiting for Anglo to confirm it.

Original sin can become original wisdom.

Johannesburg was built on gold – now it can be rebuilt on truth.

As communities, Parliament, PIC and international partners unite in the Century of Debt Campaign, South Africa has an opportunity to transform trauma into policy, neglect into reform, and exploitation into empowerment.

The story of an Englishman in South Africa comes to an end.

But the future of South African mining – ecological, economic, moral – can begin anew.

And this time, it must be written by South Africans, for South Africans – with renewed dignity and justice finally within reach.

Kirtan Bhana, TDS

Thediplomaticsociety/gnews.cz - GH