Whilst the South African White Paper called, DRAFT SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) POLICY has been withdrawn and we believe its central arguments will remain and strongly recommend that participants read this as well as other relevant articles. We are thrilled to have Joan Kinyua is a Kenyan digital rights activist and the founding President of the Data Labelers Association of Kenya (DLA) to address us. Read our AI Principles to guide action
CSOs 4 Tailings Justice
We are committed to building democratic community power to address the dangers of mine waste, including tailings facilities.
NEWS UPDATES
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After months of advocacy and demanding transparency, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has finally released its much-anticipated report on tailings. While the release is a win for civil society, the document itself is dense, technical, and high-stakes for the communities living near these sites. We thank the experts who helped us translate technical data into actionable knowledge. Meet Our Esteemed Panelists:
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By Hassen Lorgat, 3 May 2026, IOL News
The Minister of Communications, Solly Malatsi, addressed the nation as he withdrew the Draft National AI Policy on 26 April 2026: “I am sorry. It should not have happened. I am embarrassed,” and, “I am withdrawing the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy. South Africa deserves better.”
A few weeks on, the initial laughter may have subsided. But the central concern remains: the underlying political economy of the policy is unlikely to change.
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MINING TRAGEDY. The 1996 Marcopper mining tragedy spelled doom for Boac River, now a dead and heavily silted waterway. (File photos from RICHARD A. REYES and Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns) By: Arlene Lim, INQUIRER.net, April 21, 2026, MANILA, Philippines —Thirty years after the toxic mine tailings spill in the rivers of Boac and other towns in Marinduque, the Canada-based Barrick Gold Corporation has now deposited $50 million dollars in an escrow account for the rehabilitation of the abandoned mine site.
This move was confirmed by former Marinduque Governor Presbitero Velasco. The amount is equivalent to 50 percent of the settlement, and it translates to nearly P3 billion. The money constitutes half of the $100-million settlement fund, which is total of nearly P6 billion.
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The aftermath of the tailings dam collapse at the Chinese state-owned Sino-Metals Leach copper mine near Chambishi. Photograph: Richard Kille/AP Patrick Greenfield and Olga Manda, The Guardian, Fri 13 Mar 2026
While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans.
As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.
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Presentation by Prof SW Jacobsz and Dr Louis Coetzee, University of Pretoria, Faculty of Engineering
On September 11, 2022, a catastrophic failure of the Jagersfontein diamond mine tailings dam in South Africa released over 6 million (\text{m}^{3}) of liquid sludge, killing two people, destroying 164 homes, and devastating over 1,600 hectares of farmland. The disaster resulted from weak structural foundations, excessive sludge loading, and poor oversight of re-mining activities. (ScienceDirect.Com)
TAILINGS A GLOBAL MENACE
BRAZIL
SOUTH AFRICA
CSOs 4 Tailings Justice 