Photos The perilous lives of artisanal coal miners
News Source : NPR
News Summary
- South Africa is among the world's top producers of coal, most of it coming from Mpumalanga province.
- Local communities remain among the most marginalized in the country, with tens of thousands living in tin shacks.
- Artisanal coal miner Emmanuel Siyabonga is one of thousands forced by poverty and a lack of jobs into the brutal world of illegal coal mining.
- To operate legally, they would need permits, yet under South Africa's current mining system, it is virtually impossible for them to obtain them.
When Emmanuel Siyabonga was a boy, he wasnt fussy about the type of job he wanted when he grew up. Other boys dreamed of being footballers, doctors, soldiers. All Siyabonga wanted, he says, was a jo [+16670 chars]
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