Women, as local activist Pinky Langa points out, are most familiar with the life of the community, and understand its collective hopes and fears. “Women are the first to take on additional work when the mining companies come. When the companies are blasting, it’s the women who must continuously wash the curtains and the linens in the house. They’re the ones who take care of the kids who’ve gone to the stream and drunk contaminated water, or who now have chest problems because of…