Open coalmine near Africa's first nature reserve divides community

Poverty, conservation and industry are at loggerheads in the eastern town of Somkhele

Drive for an hour into the hills that lie behind South Africa's wild eastern coast, and you will find a game park full of rhino and big cats, a sprawling town spread over dozens of summits and dry valleys, and a vast opencast coal mine.

If all the advantages of the rainbow nation - stunning landscape and wildlife, massive mineral resources and a youthful population - are represented here, then so too are all its problems.