Detailed sedimentologic studies of the stratigraphy and palaeoenvironments of the Permian Witbank Coalfield of South Africa have been undertaken. The association of sandy fluvial channel-fill and confining flanking vegetation and peat, provides a modern analogue for the mechanism of formation of the sandstone palaeochannel fills in the Permian age coal seams. This applies to both varieties, i.e. the channel sandstone stone rolls completely enveloped by coal and the sinuous stone-rolls at the floors of the seams. The mechanisms and geobotanical processes operating in the Okavango Delta channels explains the configuration of these fluvial deposits and those described from the Permian Coalfield.