In South Africa, bishops demand justice for coal mining victims

Seventh largest coal producer in the world, South Africa is currently benefiting from the effects of the war in Ukraine. This caused demand for coal in European countries to jump by 720% in the first half of 2022 alone.

But the economy is one thing. What about the lives of the 100,000 employees in this industry? Under-equipped with protective equipment, many of these former or current miners develop serious pulmonary pathologies.

The Justice and Peace Commission of the South African Bishops’ Conference has decided to file a complaint with the High Court of South Africa. “It is the duty of the Church to provide assistance where it can so that the rights of the most vulnerable are respected and that fair financial compensation is at least granted to them,” underlines Cardinal Stephen Brislin, the Archbishop of Cape Town.

On the other side of the world, other bishops and Christian networks are also courageously fighting in this direction. They are Japanese and South Korean and together denounce the release of a million tonnes of contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima power plant into the Pacific, which started in recent days. A calamity for the fisheries of this part of the world. An environmental and social catastrophe, once again.