https://www.miningweekly.com

Lonmin nominated ‘Worst Company of the Year’ by NPOs

1st February 2013

By: Samantha Herbst

Creamer Media Deputy Editor

  

Font size: - +

Local nonprofit organisations (NPOs) groundWork and The Bench Marks Foun-dation have nominated embattled platinum mining corporation Lonmin as the Public Eye Awards’ Worst Company of the Year for 2012.

The Public Eye Awards take place each year before the annual general meeting (AGM) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, which will focus on ‘Resilient Dynamism’ this year to “catalyse and facilitate global, regional and industry transformation”.

As a counterpoint to the WEF AGM, the Public Eye Awards aim to expose the nexus between corporate power and the political elite and what this means for people and the environment.

The other nominees include British security firm G4S, Switzerland-based electricity company Repower, global energy solutions and transport company Alstom, petrochemicals group Shell, Indian State-controlled mining company Coal India and multinational investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.

The NPOs based their submission on “the human rights violations and environmental destruction that [Lonmin] has carried out since the establishment of its Marikana mine”.

“Mines, such as Lonmin, need to stop obsessing about cutting costs, which is usually at the expense of the environment, labour and the communities. They continue to find ways to shift their social responsibilities. Often, this turns into protests such as those we experienced at Marikana,” says The Bench Marks Foundation director John Capel.

Last year, violence erupted at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine in the North West province as police opened fire on a 3 000-strong crowd of armed workers who were striking illegally. The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 34 mineworkers on August 16, 2012, with another 78 mineworkers injured. A total of 47 people were killed during the nearly two-month-long unprotected strike, including union officials and security personnel.

The events at Marikana should be seen in the context of a failed democracy and a crumbling State “whose interest is tied up in protecting the wealth of the elite, rather than supporting the poor and responding to their call for the African National Congress’s promised ‘better life for all’ ”, says groundwork director Bobby Peek.

Meanwhile, Lonmin acting CEO Simon Scott has pledged Lonmin’s unwavering support to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which continues to investigate the reasons for what happened at Marikana.

“The Farlam Commission is the cornerstone of a national debate, not only about the tragedy, but also about the relation- ships between mines, mine- workers, local communities and the nation as a whole,” he says.

Scott adds that Lonmin is also committed to helping those who were injured and bereaved in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and that the company has founded the Sixteen-Eight Memorial Fund to assist with the education needs of the children of the deceased.

“We are investigating considerable resources to rebuild trust with our employees, redefining relations, establishing closer dia- logue and re-examining every aspect of the way in which we work and what we do in the greater Lonmin community.”

Moreover, Scott says that Lonmin is committed to working with other mining houses through the South African Chamber of Mines to rethink the collective and coordinated bargaining arrangements in the platinum industry and modernise the country’s bargaining framework.

“It is important to remember that [Lonmin is] at the centre of nothing less than a national crisis for South Africa. Certainly, we were under huge pressure to find a way to resolve the situation so that we could start mining again and protect the safety and jobs of tens of thousands [of employees] who were not involved. We also needed to give the nation an opportunity to start addressing the difficult issues it faced.”

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

Comments

Showroom

SMS group
SMS group

At SMS group, we have made it our mission to create a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry.

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Booyco Electronics
Booyco Electronics

Booyco Electronics, South African pioneer of Proximity Detection Systems, offers safety solutions for underground and surface mining, quarrying,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
Hyphen, Eva mine, ferrochrome price make headlines
27th March 2024
Resources Watch
Resources Watch
27th March 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.104 0.135s - 108pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now