CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – Mining companies in Africa have been criticised for often ignoring the views of communities in which they work.
“Many voiceless communities rely on mining to survive. We see mining as vital but the communities that are heavily affected are not at the table when decisions are made,” the leader of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, told a special session at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.
“The simple message is that mines ignore communities at everyone’s peril,” he warned.
He said communities should be a key partner with mining companies and need to be represented at high-level discussions.
He said it was not only mines that suffered from the downturn in the commodity cycle and stresses in the industry. Communities were also affected.
“Communities cannot escape the downside of mining. When the mining industry suffers, the people on the ground suffer.”
Molotlegi said the local community in his area had been hard-hit by the tumble in commodity prices and consequent low demand. He said that, as one example, landlords had lost R2.4-million during the platinum mining strike in Rustenburg in 2014, because mineworker tenants had been unable to pay them.
Everyone from spaza shops owners to the hospitality industry and small businesses lost 50% to 80% of their usual trade, while many closed down and had to retrench people.
The Bafokeng leader said municipalities sometimes neglected their roles if they thought mining companies were picking up the slack. He said local departments had “retreated” as mining companies had their own clinics and other services.
“Mines have supplanted the State as a development agent. Their privatisation of public services is well-meaning, but even the most well-meaning corporations can’t be responsible for basic services.”
Not only was service delivery poor in some areas, but people were confused as to who was delivering the service.
“They have a two-fold frustration . . . no services and no voice . . . They don’t know who to report to when things aren’t working.”
He said the motivation behind the government’s Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and social and labour plans (SLPs) was good, but that community dissatisfaction had increased since the legislation was promulgated as local government was not fulfilling its role as it should.
He suggested that SLPs should be loaded onto a single website, so that community members could check on key timeframes and give feedback on these.
Bench Marks Foundation executive director John Capel said South Africa had $6-trillion dollars of minerals in the country, yet this was not benefiting communities.
He said that, in the past ten years, less than 10% of iron-ore and less than 5% of gold had been sold locally for beneficiation.
He called for steps to change this, including training colleges and facilities in communities. He criticised mining companies for not doing enough during the commodity boom years to build communities and develop local manufacturing capacity.
“People are out of the mainstream of the economy and we need to change this,” he said.