Johannesburg’s mining legacy leaves behind a potential environmental disaster, with thousands of gallons of contaminated water sitting underneath the city and polluted air in its poorest neighborhoods. This piece kicks off a multi-part series on acid mine drainage in South Africa, focusing on the extent of the problem, who is responsible for cleaning it up, and the communities impacted by decades of largely unimpeded mining and resultant waste.
Read the first article here. You can find some of the others, focusing on the people impacted by mine waste, here, here, here, and here. This series won a Mondi Shanduku award, one of South Africa’s highest journalistic honors.
All of my work at the Mail & Guardian can be found here. Some highlights of my time as a health fellow from 2012-2013 include a piece considering the impact of health care fees on Zimbabwe’s patients, one man’s attempt to make Zimbabwe’s prisons more friendly to HIV positive people, an analysis of how changing American foreign policy could impact South Africa’s health care system, and an exploration of how one Cape Town community is trying to hold on to its heritage in the midst of rapid gentrification. I additionally worked on two of the M & G’s special projects: 200 Young South Africans, and A to Z of South African Politics.
Mara Kardas-Nelson. Journalist. 