NO LAST PLACE TO REST, coal mining and dispossession in South Africa

207pp., illus., maps, paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2025

ISBN: 9781776149292

Ethnographic account of the impact of coal mining operations on the lives of former-labour tenant and rural communities in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.

"These accounts of heartbreaking and haunting experiences around land, loss and belonging, drawn from Skosana's rich fieldwork, tell the story of multi-faceted, dehumanising and ongoing dispossession of rural South Africans. This work stands as a powerful witness to the pain and loss carried by so many black South Africans, living and dead, from Mpumalanga to KwaZulu-Natal and beyond." Nolundi Lusaka, Director, Land and Accountability Research Centre, University of Cape Town

"This book is pathbreaking. Skosana's personalised approach effectively demonstrates the onslaught on the land, identity and livelihoods of these communities: her intervention will hopefully lead to social and regulatory change towards protecting the human and environmental health and safety rights of such communities." David van Wyk, Lead Researcher, Bench Marks Foundation

Dr Dineo Skosana is a researcher at Society, Work and Politics Institute, Univeriy of the Witwatersrand.