Despite its mineral resources, the South African Development Community (SADC) region had the worst health and poverty gap on the planet, Bench Marks Foundation chairperson Dr Jo Seoka said at the not-for-profit faith-based foundation’s two-day conference, which was held in Johannesburg last month.

He added that, while a few people in the region were extremely rich, the vast majority of people in SADC member countries were desperately poor, which was reflected by high unemployment, homelessness, crime and corruption.

Seoka asserted that countries in the region should have a high standard of living, owing to their significant mineral resource endowment. “On the contrary, the region with the greatest mineral wealth on the planet is also the region whose people are living in abject poverty, with the highest rates of HIV/Aids infection and the highest incidence of tuberculosis, as well as the highest levels of silicosis – a disease associated directly with mining – malaria and bilharzia.”

He told delegates that mining was usually portrayed as an investment for development, a source of jobs and a contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country.

“[Mining] is seen as the holy cow of economics and as sacrosanct – not to be questioned or challenged . . . despite hundreds of thousands of poor people living in abject poverty because of loss of arable land and livelihoods, aggravating health conditions, as well as cultural and social upheaval – all of which manifest . . . in unemployment and push poor communities to the margins of society.”

Seoka noted that mining, worldwide, was suffering a crisis of legitimacy for two reasons: firstly, because of its negative environmental impact and subsequent contribution to climate change and, secondly, because of “its great cost [to] communities and rural life styles, which gives rise to serious health concerns”.

Bench Marks has more than 100 monitors in 40 mining communities across South Africa, with a reach into Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Mozambique.

A common theme among mining communities – that it is destroying their environment and causing them suffering – was highlighted by Seoka, who further stated that, despite their outcries, “no one is listening”.

He added that promises in the form of corporate social investment, social and labour plan undertakings, and industrial activity from mining companies were often not realised.