Mining must take place with a strong focus on the interests of those who live in mining areas, says Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Manthashe, a standpoint that supports the notion that a mining right and a land right can coexist without pleasing one party at the expense of the other. But the Xolobeni judgment turns this around, says legal firm Bowmans, and renders it out of sync with the Constitutional Court’s Maledu judgment on the coexistence potential of both rights. Xolobeni subjects mining activity to the full and informed consent of the community, which has informal and not formal land rights. This is continuing to confound.