JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa remained the world’s best mining address and steps should be taken to build the future industry collectively while acknowledging past wrongs, Chamber of Mines president Mike Teke said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening of the two-day Mining Lekgotla in Midrand, Teke was among a long list of mining luminaries who are determined that this well-attended mining gathering is more than a talk shop and forms the foundation a new, equitable South African mining industry, which is still staggering from the Marikana tragedy and the five-month platinum strike.

“The past we acknowledge, the future we’ll build together,” Teke said as the country marks the second anniversary of the Marikana shooting and awaits the outcome of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the killing of the 34 protesting mineworkers.

New Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi told the meeting that the country’s minerals must be used to the benefit of the majority of South Africans and committed his own department to rigorous and transparent consultations with industry stakeholders in setting the regulatory environment.

The Minister said that initial results of the audit of Mining Charter compliance by the mining industry had shown that much work still needed to be done to reach the target of transformation, which was the only guarantee of long-term stability.

He also urged the industry to examine the possibilities of ending the migrant labour system in its current form, and saluted those mining companies that had enhanced the dignity of the workforce.

“We collectively have a unique opportunity to change this industry for the better,” the Minister concluded.
The industry initiated the Mining Lekgotla three years ago as a platform for strategic government, labour and business conversation.

This year it coincides with the deadline to meet the Mining Charter commitments plus the twentieth anniversary of South Africa’s democracy.

The milestones present mining with an opportunity to check whether it has delivered on its promises, Chamber of Mines VP and Anglo American South Africa executive director Khanyisile Kweyama said in her opening remarks, made in the wake of the bitter labour unrest, falling operational competiveness and disruptive market volatility.

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni said ways needed to be found to better understand the workforce and the industry should guard against rewarding anarchy.

The NUM leader called for a growing consciousness of what was best for the country as a whole and for an end to short-termism.

During a debate that followed, Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis said that poor leadership and destructive behaviour was destroying the industry.

The Solidarity leader said that South Africa needed strong union leaders who acted in their members’ interests, business leaders who provided sustainable solutions and political leaders who were prepared to set aside their short-term political interests.

He urged unions only to go on strike as a last resort and called for the Constitution to be strengthened to emphasise the right-to-work clause.

Errant behaviour was not only destroying current jobs but also the jobs of "our children’s children".

United Association of South Africa (Uasa) mining divisional manager Franz Stehring urged the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which led the five-month strike in the platinum belt, to become part of the tripartite alliance and to participate with the rest of the industry, which needed to take decisions on greater mechanisation, beneficiation and the building of mining communities.

The Uasa leader also called for the way to be opened for the statutory Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to be allowed to intervene during strikes, and for government departments to avoid doing so, as issues that had nothing to do with collective bargaining were prolonging strikes unnecessarily.

South African Mining Development Association (Samda) chairperson Peter Temane called for an equitable access to resources for junior miners and the reversal of the injustices of the past.

The Samda leader said that the country should learn from the beneficiation done in the old South Africa by State companies like steelmaker Iscor and fuel-from-coal company Sasol.

Chamber of Mines State Intervention in the Mining Sector committee chairperson Andile Sangqu called for more discussion on the consequences of an absence of growth in the mining industry and an absence of growth in the national economy.

The importance of productivity in industry growth needed to be emphasised and the industry needed to understand that the benefits of productivity should not be passed on to shareholders alone.

“We all need to focus on a solution that works for everyone, no matter how painful that might be,” Sangqu added.