On Wednesday 8 February 2017, as thousands of mine industry executives gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for the Invest in Africa Mining Indaba, Sonke Gender Justice protested in front of the Cecil Rhodes statue in the Company Gardens, Cape Town.
Our aim was to tell a different, fuller story of history and called on the gold mining industry to acknowledge their role in the epidemic of silicosis, an incurable lung disease resulting from the inhalation of toxic silica dust.