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Much progress in mineworker housing delivery but more needs to be done

23rd June 2017

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

     

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Many migrant employees do not want to permanently settle in mining towns, but prefer to maintain their homes in the rural areas and return to them, says the Chamber of Mines (CoM) of South Africa, citing its research and experience in the industry.

“Providing permanent urban dwellings, as well as urban home ownership, is therefore not necessarily the solution to migrant labour issues,” the chamber states.

Nonetheless, CoM employment relations head Motsamai Motlhamme stresses that mining houses are focusing on promoting home ownership and encouraging employees to buy their own houses by rolling out programmes to educate their employees on the benefits of home ownership, in line with the Mining Charter.

South Africa’s mining industry has for many years relied on in-country migrant labour, as well as employees from Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In the past, this resulted in the migrant workers being accommodated in barracks- style hostels, which created many social, economic and political challenges for mining companies and the employees.

Motlhamme says it is well known that migrant labour can result in the separation of families, often for extended periods, which, in turn, can lead to social ills such dual families, with one near the place of work and the other in the labour-sending area.

He tells Mining Weekly that the mining industry is exploring alternatives to current labour and work practices to address the concern around dual families. “Key to this solution is exploring alternative shift arrangements and different shift cycles.” This will enable employees to return home and spend time with their families more frequently and for longer periods and carries with it the hope of discouraging dual families.

Meanwhile, Motlhamme points out that the mining industry recognised the critical need to address the living conditions of its employees and had, even before the Mining Charter came into effect in 2002, worked to upgrade the accommodation provided for mineworkers.

He says, as the mining sector aims to provide a more stable housing environment for those living on mine property or in adjacent communities, it has to be cautious not to cause “economic fallout” in the historical labour-sending areas. “It is the mining industry’s view that the benefits of a better-housed workforce include greater labour stability and improved productivity,” Motlhamme states.

The Mining Charter requires that mining companies establish measures to improve the standard of housing, including the upgrading of hostels, the conversion of hostels into family units and the promotion of home ownership options for employees.

It also requires that all mining companies and their operations submit social and labour plans, which detail how they plan to achieve compliance with the Mining Charter, as a prerequisite for the granting of mining rights. Progress reports against these are submitted yearly to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

Motlhamme elaborates that, when the charter was reviewed in 2010, the new iteration set more specific targets, mandating that mining companies implement measures to improve the standards of housing and living conditions for mineworkers. These targets are that companies convert or upgrade hostels into family units by the end of 2014, attain an occupancy rate of one person per room by the end of 2014 and facilitate home ownership options for all mine employees in consultation with organised labour by the end of 2014.

“The industry has largely met these targets. By our analysis, the industry achieved 73% and 63.4% for the first two targets respectively. In respect of the third target, the industry has focused on promoting home ownership, rental options and integrating mining communities into local structures,” states Motlhamme.

However, a 2015 DMR report on compliance with the Mining Charter indicated that the drive to improve the living standards of mineworkers had not been fully realised. The report found that only 63% of hostel rights holders had converted their dwellings into either family or single housing units. The matter remains a bone of contention between the DMR and the CoM.

CHOOSING TO LIVE OUT
Motlhamme points out that, prior to the Mining Charter being promulgated, the mining industry had agreed to a demand by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to provide a living-out allowance (LOA) for hostel dwellers who opted for accommodation off mine property.

He explains that the purpose of the LOA was to provide employees with an additional choice of residence, with the LOA intended to support rental payment and board. The allowance – a minimum of R2 000 since September 2014 – is directly related to hostel board and lodging costs, and is intended to support an equivalent standard of food and accommodation.

Motlhamme says the LOA has increased yearly, often ahead of inflation, since it first came into effect in 2014. “Unfortunately, the LOA has given rise to unintended social issues. One of the critical social issues [is that] the LOA has not necessarily been used for its intended purposes.”

The funds are often used to supplement the money sent by employees to their families in their rural homes or used for other spending and to service debt, he adds. Motlhamme notes that it has been suggested that a stakeholder review of the LOA and its unintended negative consequences is essential.

Further, he highlights that rapid growth in the South African platinum mining industry from the mid-1990s to 2008 resulted in the development of sizeable, impoverished informal settlements close to the platinum mines in the North West. There are fewer hostels and the majority of employees in the province receive LOAs.

He says this partly contributed to the instability and unrest during the 2014 platinum industry strikes, but notes that, in the gold sector, about 60% of employees have voluntarily elected to remain in company hostel accommodation and, as a result, fewer sizeable informal settlements have risen close to the mines.

CIVIL SOCIETY CONCERNS
Mineworkers Investment Trust (MIT) COO Simphiwe Nanise highlights that, while there are “pockets of excellence”, particularly at mines in the North West, generally, mines do not provide adequate housing for their employees.

He says the MIT, which provides financial benefits for NUM members, believes that the prevalence of informal settlements around mines is evidence of the lack of compliance with the charter’s housing requirements, contending further that the conversion of hostels from single- sex units into family units has not been satisfactory to date.

Moreover, corporate monitoring organisation the Bench Marks Foundation’s executive director, John Capel, says the organisation has long proposed that all platinum producers in South Africa review their housing model, which promotes private home ownership, in line with the proposed Mining Charter.

He says the organisation’s surveys have revealed that workers generally do not want to buy houses. “What they want is subsidised rental accommodation or revolving stock accommodation.

“Unless government and mining houses start to listen to workers and act according to their interests and wishes, the mining housing crisis is never going to be resolved.”

Dr Claude Kabemba, director of Southern Africa Resource Watch, the natural resources governance project of the Johannesburg-based foundation Open Society Initiative, argues that government and the mines need to collaborate to address the issue of mineworker housing.

He says any social investment in housing by mining companies must correspond with government’s housing plans to ensure that houses constructed by mining companies can also be serviced by government in terms of health, education, water and electricity, besides other services.

Kabemba remarks that, most of the time, mineworkers’ houses are not built with government plans in mind and, when mines close, these compounds become dilapidated and neglected, with no proper facilities.

“Equally, government has the responsibility to provide housing for its people, especially those who cannot afford it. In particular cases, government and companies can discuss how they can work together to provide decent houses for mineworkers where they have difficulties [in meeting] the associated financial obligations alone,” he states.

Kabemba contends that much of this issue results from mining companies not providing decent wages. “Mineworkers’ salaries do not allow them to buy, build or rent decent houses for themselves. This is why relations are always tense between mineworkers and mining companies.”

Therefore, he stresses the criticality of mining companies investing in their workers and ensuring the provision of descent and comfortable accommodation. “This will increase productivity and ensure security for their investment.”

Motlhamme states, however, that, with regard to wages and other benefits, the mining industry is “well above” other sectors in the country.

“Notwithstanding that the mining industry has faced significant economic challenges over the past few years, making an aggregate loss of R38.5-billion in 2015 alone, the CoM’s figures show that employee earnings increased by R23.1-billion, or 24.69%, between 2012 and 2016,” he concludes.

Motlhamme says the mining industry is particularly cognisant of these housing concerns – hence, the chamber is working on several initiatives to address them.

These include the development of a finance- linked individual subsidy programme to assist employees in securing housing, which would reduce the lenders’ exposure and risk, thus facilitating easy access to finance for mineworkers.

Motlhamme points out that there is engagement between the State-owned Public Investment Corporation of South Africa and the CoM to explore the possibility of jointly developing financing solutions for accommodation in mining areas.

He adds that mining companies have also applied different solutions in an attempt to address the industry’s housing challenge, including companies buying land from municipalities or donating land owned by the companies. Some mining companies have contributed funds for infrastructure and services to be established on such land.

The DMR was approached by Mining Weekly to provide input but declined to comment.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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