Global Mining Companies Fuel Ecocide in Southern Africa, Displacing Indigenous Peoples and Violating Human Rights

Author: Kudzaiishe Seti, MSc

September 25, 2025

This image taken from video Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, shows a breach at a tailing dam at a Sino-Metals Leach Zambia mine near Kitwe. [Image credit: AP Photo/Richard Kille, file]

Introduction

There have been growing ecocide issues in Southern Africa in the past decade. While some of the ecocide is led by small scale artisanal miners who are citizens of the respective countries, large scale environmental issues have been caused by multinational corporations from Asia, Europe, and North America. New mining areas targeted by these companies are often close or in national parks, “rural areas”, or “indigenous community areas”, posing health risks to both people and wildlife. Environmental issues often infringe upon human rights as they lead to forced relocation, displacement, land grabs of “traditional land”, and the loss of environmental resources for local communities. The article highlights key environmental issues which have affected the rights and health of local communities and ecosystems. The article proposes some possible solutions to halt environmental issues which threaten democracy and ecosystems in Southern Africa. 

Recent environmental issues in Southern Africa

In February 2025, a Chinese-owned mine in Zambia was responsible for a tailings dam spill. The tailings dam spillage is considered toxic, hazardous and has long term impacts. The spillage occurred close to the city of Kitwe, the second largest settlement in Zambia, threatening drinking water in the city and prompting a temporary suspension of water services. The spillage flowed into tributaries of the Kafue river, a great river offering water resources to over 10 million Zambians, ecosystem services, and home to Southern Africa’s second largest national park, the Kafue National Park. In response, local communities have sued the Chinese firm over 400 million United States Dollars for environmental damage. Given the extent of the spill, the company is expected to do more to reduce the impact of spillage on the biophysical environment, local community, and rights of people. The spillage has left human rights and environmental activists questioning the lack of legislation to ensure polluting companies receive adequate punishment for ecocide. Farmers claim that they  were offered one-time payments worth not more than 100 United States dollars, a move they described as insulting. Such merger efforts show that multinational companies might be deliberately operating with impunity  in Southern Africa as there is little to no binding international laws to hold them accountable in such instances. 

Similar environmental issues have been witnessed in Zimbabwe in multiple locations in the past five years. In northern Zimbabwe, Chinese mining companies mining granite caused distress in Mutoko as villages faced environmental degradation, noise pollution, and received none of the benefit from any of the proceeds from the mining. Locals complain that foreign companies are mining granite in their ancestral land yet they barely see any support by the companies to their communities. In cases of land degradation or forced relocation, families are paid meagre compensation, leaving them in financial distress and separated from their ancestral land and relatives.

In central Zimbabwe, the once-scenic Boterekwa mountains have been severely damaged by Belarusian and Chinese companies. Their mining operations are polluting local rivers that serve as an important source of water for local rural dwellers. Chinese-owned mines in central Zimbabwe have been accused  of causing unprecedented noise and dust pollution in the Shurugwiu urban area and its rural hinterland. With rural communities almost defenseless, such foreign owned mining companies continue to destroy the environment and endanger livelihoods in Zimbabwe. 

Multiple companies have been implicated in causing  severe environmental degradation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DRC is known for its vast resources in copper, cobalt and lithium, which are essential in an era of green energy transition. There have been reports of unsustainable mining practices resulting in threats to biodiversity and livelihoods. Confirmed reports show that homes have been destroyed as cobalt mines expand  even into cities, destroying the environment and people’s homes with little or no compensation. Whilst electric vehicles are being hailed as game changers in climate action, the sourcing of cobalt and the environmental issues associated with its extraction in the DRC raises concerns of greenwashing. Communities are mourning underdevelopment and environmental concerns and yet there seem to be limited options on a global stage to hold such companies accountable. 

What needs to be done 

There is a need to recognize ecocide as a crime that can be tried at the International Criminal Court  (ICC). Environmental issues are of equal importance as war crimes, genocide, and other issues which are tried at the International Criminal Court. Millions of citizens of Southern African countries are deprived of rights to their ancestral land, clean water and witnessing rapid biodiversity loss induced by internationally owned mining companies. Such issues are not only happening in Southern Africa, but across all low income countries where politicians fail to balance the need for economic growth with human rights for local populations. This has left indigenous communities and rural dwellers experiencing human rights violations which may transcend generations. Member states of the United Nations must push for the adoption of ecocide as the fifth crime under the International Criminal Court. 

Conclusion

Southern Africa is endowed with natural resources, yet these have often come as a curse to local communities. Foreign owned companies are destroying the environment, and infringing on the rights of local communities. There is a need for a cross-sectorial approach to fast track the adoption of ecocide at the ICC to ensure climate and social justice not only in Southern Africa but across all communities affected by unsustainable mining activities across the world. 

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Glossary

• Ecocide: Large-scale and deliberate destruction of the environment that is damaging to the point of potentially causing serious or long-term harm to ecosystems and human enjoyment of a territory.

• Indigenous communities: Distinct ethnic groups with an ancestral connection to a region before colonization, possessing unique languages, cultures, and social systems

• Livelihoods: The various ways people secure the basic necessities of life, encompassing the capabilities, assets, and activities needed to sustain themselves and their households, such as obtaining food, water, shelter, and income.

• Multinational corporations: Business entities with global operations and branches, or subsidiaries in at least one country other than its home country.

• Tailings dam: Engineered structure that contains the waste byproducts from mining operations, typically in the form of a slurry.

• Tributaries: A stream or river that flows into a larger stream, river, or body of water, such as a lake or ocean, but does not flow directly into the ocean itself.

• Unprecedented: A circumstance or phenomenon that has never happened, been done, or been known before.

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Sources

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