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Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Killings and repression of defenders · South Africa · 2020

Fikile Ntshangase killing and Somkhele coal mine (South Africa)

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
People
  • 1 people died.
    Fikile Ntshangase, killed 22 October 2020.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 1 not measured See the gaps

Fikile Ntshangase, who opposed the expansion of Tendele's Somkhele coal mine in KwaZulu-Natal, was killed in October 2020. The mine continued to operate.

None reportedPeople held accountable for the killing
As of 2022 per the source reviewed; no later update found.

Status As of October 2025, according to Daily Maverick: no trial; police said the suspected killers had died.

What?
An activist who opposed the expansion of the Somkhele coal mine was killed. Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Where?
Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
When?
22 October 2020. Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not established in the cited sources; she opposed the mine expansion and refused to withdraw the court challenges. Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
How?
None on record.
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Fikile Ntshangase was killed on 22 October 2020 in Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal.

She had opposed the expansion of Tendele's Somkhele coal mine. According to the source reviewed, she refused to sign an agreement withdrawing the court challenges to the expansion.

The mine continued operating.

Daily Maverick reported on 26 October 2025 that police said the suspected killers of Fikile Ntshangase had died, and that who paid for the killing had not been established. No arrest or trial has been reported.

  1. 2020Fikile Ntshangase killed on 22 October in Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal
  2. 202526 Oct: Daily Maverick reports police saying the suspected killers have died

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

    Recorded

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What nature saw

    Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

    Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

    Mine
    Operating
    Somkhele continued after the killing

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
    No court caseDeaths reportedNo independent ecological evaluation

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: No independent ecological evaluation is on record.

    Court

    Record

    • None on record No one has been tried or convicted for the killing in the cited sources. Daily Maverick reported in October 2025 that police said the suspected killers had died; who paid for the killing has not been established.

    Did the harm stop?

    The mine continued to operate after the killing.

    Who paid?

    Not established in the cited sources.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    Communities and civil society

    1. Joint statement on the killing of activist Fikile Ntshangase
      Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwatersrand · 2020

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
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