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There is no lack of histories of early state systems, kingdoms and empires; labour and mining; land alienation; urban social formations; and many others. The 27 SP th sp Biennial Conference of the Southern African Historical Society (SAHS) came at a time of deepening uncertainty in Southern Africa broadly, with implications for its academe and particularly for historical studies in South Africa. 2 See, for instance, a statement of the UCT History Honours students decrying how the History Department staff watched from the sidelines while their institution engaged in propaganda about the Rhodes statue and other transformation issues: UCT (University of Cape Town) Students to the Academics of the Department of Historical Studies, UCT: Statement on University Crisis, 7 October 2016, http://www.historicalstudies.uct.ac.za/hst/news/historical-studies-honours-class-letter-to-the-department-7-october-2016 accessed 23 December 2020. [Extracted from the article]

Gold was central to the South African state from the outset. Its revenues sustained the pariah apartheid regime after 1961 in the face of economic sanctions and military spending. At that time, a regulatory regime arose that blurred the distance needed between regulator and regulatee. Water-related liabilities such as acid mine drainage were nationalized, burdening the post-1994 democratic government. Legal reform has sought to internalize those historic externalities through the application of the greenfields logic of global best practice. The unintended consequence is disinvestment, thereby hastening the nationalizing of all remaining liability. A new approach is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]