In South Africa, many people, particularly those living in mining communities, continue to face a range of interconnected challenges, including social tensions, service delivery concerns, inequality, exclusion, and declining trust between institutions and citizens. These challenges cannot be addressed by any single institution or group acting alone.

It is for this reason that community representatives from Estcourt, Carolina, Lephalale, Middelburg, and Newcastle came together with representatives from civil society organisations, government institutions, community and traditional forums, and youth and women’s groups for a two-day engagement in Pretoria, held from 30 June to 1 July 2026. The dialogue was convened by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR).

The Just Energy Transition Multistakeholder Dialogue was convened as a relationship building platform, dedicated to shared learning, mutual exchange and exploring collaborative pathways to address issues in mining communities. It was organised to create a constructive platform where stakeholders can collectively examine the drivers of conflict, strengthen relationships, and identify practical actions for collaboration.

Participants unanimously agreed that this common platform will:

· Promote continued communication among stakeholders;

· Enable coordinated responses to emerging challenges;

· Build relationships and trust across sectors;

· Support joint learning and collective action;

· Amplify local knowledge and community-led solutions.

During the dialogue, effective responses to conflict and social fragmentation were identified as requiring the active involvement of a broad range of sectors and constituencies.

In charting the way forward, Felicity Harrison, Senior Practitioner at the IJR, emphasised that, “A strong foundation has been laid for moving forward.”

She stated that the collaborative work in Just Energy Transition will be scaled up to be even more inclusive, as different stakeholders need to work together more, including sectors that cover agriculture, fisheries, tourism and health.

The dialogue was informed by principles emphasising inclusion, trust-building, accountability, acknowledgement of grievances and the strengthening of relationships between communities and institutions.

One of the important aims of the event was to create a platform for the creation of a shared understanding and a platform for cooperation. Participants reported having more of an

appreciation for the challenges facing municipal government and a renewed commitment to cooperating with them as a result of this meeting.