Dr Dineo Skosana

African Fellow
Dr Dineo Skosana

Dr Dineo Skosana - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5569-2057

African Fellow, December 2022 - January 2023

Home Institution: University of the Witwatersrand

Dineo Skosana is a senior researcher and project leader for the Nature and Society cluster and coordinates the coal project which investigates South Africa’s transition from coal to renewable energy at Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP). Her specific focus on the project is on mining-induced dispossession, which is central to rationalising amongst other reasons, why the transition from coal is necessary. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her doctorate research explored the contestations over coal mining and African grave exhumations in Mpumalanga province. She has previously worked and published extensively on the continued salience of traditional leadership in post-apartheid South Africa. She has an interest in indigenous politics, rural struggles, as well as politics over land, sacred sites, heritage and belonging.

Project Title: Compensating Mining-induced Dispossession and Intangible Loss

Mining-led dispossession in rural communities reveals not only the vulnerability of land rights but also the contestations over the meanings of land. In other words, the non-recognition of sacred meanings that African communities attach to land is at the root of conflict where private capital investments are concerned. As the contestation between mining companies and communities intensify over dispossession- and these increasingly require court arbitration, the pertinent question that arises as communities seek recourse to protect their rights to land, is what constitutes adequate compensation for the loss of land, homes, graves, and land-based livelihoods? In other words, can dispossession be quantified? This question is central to this project. It is a question that currently not only preoccupies the courts, legal experts, multi-national corporations, academics, but communities too.