Women walking near Komati Power Station. Komati, Mpumalanga
In 2017, I was awarded the Ernest Cole Photographic Award on the basis of a proposal for a long-form documentary on the material reality of digging and burning coal for electricity in Mpumalanga.
The idea for the project came about when I went to the province for the first time in 2015 and was appalled at the state of the land and the colossal amount of pollution present in the air, water and land itself. Digging deeper, I found that the state of the landscape mirrored the conditions of the working poor of Mpumalanga, whose bodies, livelihoods and very lives are being destroyed in the name of coal and electricity production. I have been working there since then, trying to reflect the injustice of life under coal.
This selection of images is a unique edit of the work on display at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg in October. It includes photographs that do not appear in the exhibition or the book, Broken Land, which is published by Jacana Media. The captions provide additional insight into the environmental and human rights abuses intrinsic to the electricity we use every day.
Photographer and New Frame visual editor Daylin Paul’s book and exhibition, Broken Land, launches at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg on Tuesday 8 October and is on show until Sunday 27 October.
Aerial view of Mpumalanga. The rivers and water catchment areas in the province are heavily polluted by mining and heavy industry.The Sasol Synfuels Plant. This facility is the greatest single point of emissions in the world. Secunda, Mpumalanga.Handmade toilet in field with power station in background. The energy, mining and industrial activity in the province generates billions in revenue, but structural inequality remains entrenched in everyday life. Evander, Mpumalanga.A student walks through eMbalenhle township near Secunda with the Sasol Synfuels Plant in the background. Many people in eMbalenhle suffer from tuberculosis, asthma and other respiratory diseases. eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga.Child playing with ball near veld fire. Phola, Mpumalanga.Big House, a settlement next to Komati Power Station. Despite living just a few metres from a power station, the residents of Big House have never had formal access to electricity. Komati, Mpumalanga.Unlicensed miner in community-made mine. Economic conditions in the province are so dire that unemployed people in Wesselton have taken to mining coal independently to earn an income. There is no ventilation and those who mine here have no safety equipment. Ermelo, Mpumalanga.Unlicensed miner sharpening pickaxe. This miner, whose name has been withheld to protect his identity, has no formal training as a geologist. He has been using the skills he learned working for a mining company to mine independently since losing his job. Ermelo, MpumalangaUnlicensed miner exiting the community-made mine shaft. The community mine has rules and a shift schedule, and provides many otherwise unemployed residents with a source of income. Ermelo, Mpumalanga.Tumisang Mafa keeps livestock on a patch of land between Secunda and eMbalenhle, near the Sasol Synfuels Plant. ‘I wake up from fever and coughing when I am sleeping,’ he says. eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga.Dog drinking polluted water with a mine dump in the background. Billions are spent and earned in the extractive and energy industries in South Africa, but little of that money reaches the people who live closest to the resources and facilities. Vosman, Mpumalanga.
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