Despite having all signed the agreement following the COP 21 conference in December 2015, will African countries actually manage to stop exploiting fossil coal? The answer to this question hinges primarily on South Africa which accounts for over 90% of African coal production and for 80% of its consumption. In other African countries that use coal, the future of this mineral ore will mainly depend on the position of leaders towards coal thermal power and the robustness of other electricity generating channels. These countries will be influenced by the policies of large countries that export coal or related technologies (mainly South Africa, China and India).