Mining, Power and Politics in South Africa : Rethinking the African Resource Curse

The idea that contemporary African politics is afflicted by a so-called 'resource curse' has become common currency.

African states, in these arguments, suffer - apparently universally - from the corrupting and economically damaging effects of the export of natural resources.

In this highly original work, Keith Breckenrige challenges the inevitability of such perceived wisdom through an in-depth examination of mining in South Africa. Those studying the mining industry in South Africa have described it as a racist blight, deforming the state, public health, the environment and the economy. In the wake of the now notorious Marikana massacre, outrage against the curse of mining has reached an angry harmony.

Yet Breckenridge argues there are intriguing political paradoxes obscured by this consensus, and these present interesting possibilities for other African countries facing similar processes of long-term resource investment.

Though racist inequality remains a powerful feature of contemporary South Africa, in many other respects the mines have bequeathed a social order that has the potential to escape the predicament of the 'resource curse'. An important and timely investigation of a key issue affecting Africa and the global economy today.