South African mining is certainly not a sunset industry. The country’s 130-year-old gold mining sector, for instance, has huge potential for the future in view of the promising research and development into new mining methods, which itself can spawn a new set of industries, as it did 100 years ago.

This is according to Chamber of Mines (CoM) president Mike Teke, who was speaking at the chamber’s 126th annual general meeting (AGM), shortly before he was elected for a third term of office, in Johannesburg, last week. Andile Sangqu was re-elected as VP, while Neal Froneman was elected the other VP, replacing the outgoing Graham Briggs.

He said that the recent journey of the local mining industry had been mostly bleak, caught in violent storms. “Mostly moving forward, sometimes backwards, sometimes marching in directions it should never have taken.”

Teke emphasised that he yearned for the South African mining industry to continue on a “journey to greatness”. He stated that, if the sector followed the right approach, it would be taken in a direction that would be to the benefit of not only the industry but also, on balance, South African society more broadly.

Teke lamented the lives of the tens of thousands of miners lost in accidents over the years in South Africa. He stated that many of those accidents could have been prevented and would not have happened, had mining companies known and done what they know and do now.

Teke commented that, while the industry was gratified that it had reduced the annual number of fatalities by 86% in the last 20 years, with 77 miners having lost their lives in 2015, compared with 590 in 1993, the industry needed to continue “in all seriousness” to achieve the goal of zero harm.

He said the same held true for the untold numbers lost to occupational disease, including silicosis and tuberculosis (TB). “Many of their identities are not even known to us as they were returned home when they became too ill to work.”

“We can be [grateful],” he emphasised, “for the work being done by our gold companies to find fair and sustainable solutions to the chal-lenges of silicosis,” Teke remarked. Further, he highlighted that the chamber’s health team was “doing excellent work” to address the excessive incidence of TB on the mines and in mining towns.

“The CoM is working towards achieving what should always have been the norm. “
I want to pause here to note that, in all these cases, the progress we have made has been thanks to a particular methodology.

“That methodology has been joint and coopera-tive action between the industry, government, workers and their representatives. We often fight and disagree with each other about almost everything. But the key to progress has always been cooperation,” Teke explained.

Moreover, he pointed out that the Mining Charter had been an effective tool in addressing at least some of the industry’s legacies. Teke noted that, while it had become fashionable for some to say that it had been a failure, the facts told a different story.

“The only people who will say that are those who have chosen to forget about our country’s and our industry’s history, or have chosen to avoid finding out about it,” he contended.
Until the late 1980s, skilled jobs were denied to black miners. The last piece of job reservation law to go was that applicable to the acquisition of blasting certificates, which is one of the most core mining qualifications. Most black miners had not had opportunities for basic literacy and numeracy skills, Teke added.

He highlighted that it took ten years for the proportion of skilled positions held by black miners to approach 20%. However, since the advent of the charter in 2004, those numbers rose to between more than 40% – which was in line with the current Mining Charter’s target – and 75%, depending on the category.

Teke conceded that there was still “a way to go” before those percentages reflected the country’s demographics. Nonetheless, he stressed, there had been deliberate and steady progress and it would continue to take place in the sector.
He further noted that, until the end of the 1990s, almost no goods and services were procured from black-owned companies. “That situation today is transformed,” stated Teke.
“It is not [so long ago when]up to 18 black mineworkers shared each bleak hostel room. That is another of our industry’s reasons for shame. But the charter propelled us to a situation where, by 2014, in line with the charter target, almost every hostel dweller had his or her private bedroom.

“Those who say the charter has failed clearly did not themselves suffer the indignity of that life style,” he remarked.

Teke acknowledged that hostel living was “anything but the ideal,” and stressed the industry had a lot more to do to create an acceptable quality of life for all miners and mine-affected communities.

“There are many communities where discon-tent appears to reign. As mining companies, we need to do more to engage with the communities that are our neighbours to ensure we prevent adverse impacts on those communities,” he said.

Teke added that the mining industry also had to – where it could – ensure the betterment of lives of mine-hosting communities. However, he noted that mines could only “supplement” the more central role of the local and provincial authorities and national government as they could not be reasonably expected to be responsible for basic government services, as often demanded or expected by local communities.