Major turning points and crucial deciding moments continue to confront the South African mining industry, which can no longer flinch from negotiating them with fortitude and fairness.
The industry has reached a point of being obliged to look long and to act strong when it comes to doing what is right and proper.
As Goldman Sachs mining analyst Andrew Matheny reinforced this month in his research document entitled ‘Cyril Ramaphosa’s New Deal for South Africa’, the mining sector remains a key contributor to the South African economy and exports.
But it is in decline and, to reverse that decline effectively, it needs to act holistically across the political, economic and social landscape.
A sincere mea culpa is still awaited from the Chamber of Mines to cleanse the industry of its past horrendous transgressions and that needs to be followed by a realistic attitude to modernisation.
Government and the mining unions must lock arms whole-heartedly and intelligently to ameliorate the unavoidably negative impact of eliminating people from the face in the interests of safety and health.
As Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection executive director Joel Netshitenzhe states his book, The Political Economy of Mining in South Africa, a Luddite approach to the bugle of modernisation would be unwise.
The point has also been reached of mineworkers refusing point blank to go to work do die. The problem is that nobody can guarantee that. Even though seismicity monitors abound in underground mining environments, seismic events and dreaded falls of ground remain unpredictable. Modern science has unfortunately failed to find a solution.
Therefore, in the context of the ‘New Deal’, the mining industry must take the high road with courage and care and place safety at the very pinnacle of all considerations.
If that is done sincerely, having people in vulnerable underground areas will cease, steps will be taken to ensure that people are in supported areas and machines will be introduced to replace people at the face.
If that cannot be done, there must be sufficient honesty and rectitude to say ‘so far and no further’, even if it means shaft closure. The country simply cannot go on paying lip service to matters of life and death.
South Africa is renowned for its diverse wealth of minerals and regulated mining industry – but that has not stopped the regularity of heart-breaking headlines about the death and injury of mineworkers.
The mines are places of employment for hundreds of thousands of mineworkers from all over Africa and many international experts are also employed by South African mining companies, but the industry has no way out but to look at itself in the mirror and acknowledge that the huge risk of death and injury in mines simply has to be drastically reduced.