Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Tsepiso Makwetla speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Makwetla: Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is showing outstanding leadership in his relentless bid to keep the troubled mining sector from derailing.

Creamer: I think the Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe is showing outstanding leadership in his relentless bid to keep the troubled mining sector from derailing. It has been a whirlwind 20 days, it started on June 14 and came through on July 3. 

What other country can do that? It is in the DNA of South Africa, you’ve got problems and you get major mining companies, junior mining companies together with the who’s who of mining and the minority unions with the majority unions, wall-to-wall Ministry at the Presidential Guest House, and they come through with a document which is a virtual roadmap for how you go forward. 

It doesn’t guarantee stability in the short-term. The document is going to be tested.  We have got these very tough wage talks coming through in the gold industry.  We saw the sort of level of demand with 150 % increases. 

It doesn't guarantee stability but it shows how you are going to deal with instability.  Hopefully there will never be another Marikana with this sort of thing.  It has got short term imperatives, medium term imperatives and it is going to change the face of mining.

Makwetla: As you say about the roadmap, the South African mining industry is steaming ahead with some radical changes to the problematic migrant labour system.

Creamer: South Africa’s mining industry is now steaming ahead with some radical changes to the problematic migrant labour system.  We know that it has partly caused the Marikana tragedy and now they are looking at it with a magnifying glass. It comes into that whole document, but we thought that this is party of the long-term tackling issues that they are going to deal with. 

But, we hear good news, short-term activities. This is the worst practice of migrant labour in the world.  We haven’t followed best practice, we can’t talk about best practice.  How can you have people living in a place for a year and then going home for two-weeks and then say that is there home. 

Eventually the aberrations arise and you get a home that is an urban home and a permanent home that's a rural home and never the twain meet.  What they are saying now is that there must be a decision on which way they are going to go, are you going to be a rural person or are you going to be an urban person. 

Some mining houses are able to do it right away.  They are saying let’s have an eight-weeks on, two-weeks off situation where you work for eight weeks and then you go back to your rural home for two weeks, so that it can give you an attachment to your home because you are going there on a regular basis and the hopefully you will decide that is your home and you won’t have this dual situation. 

Tremendously important document.  How are they going to get back? The mining houses said that they will give them comfortable transport to and from there.  What is the government going to do?  Government has to build what they call the labour-forwarding areas, these rural areas.  They will see to clinics and ask the mining houses what is available and what is needed for infrastructure in the rural areas.

Makwetla: As South Africans were going all out to solve their mining problems, Namibia’s top brass arrived in Johannesburg this week to woo investors across the border into their country.

Creamer: As South Africa we are going through this solving problem for this mining industry, which is our dynamo of the economy, Namibia’s top brass were in the country, in Joburg, to woo investors across the border into Namibia and promising them ports, power and predictability and saying that they have 39 opportunities there in gold, diamonds, copper, iron-ore and even under-the-sea phosphates. 

We know phosphates are becoming important because of the security issue with regards to food. Namibia will give them a hand-holding exercise, they’ve got a State-owned mining company that is offering these assets on an earn-in basis. You come to us we form a joint venture company, work together as you provide a development, you get a bigger shareholding in this joint venture company. 

The shareholding of the State-owned company diminishes and eventually you take over as a miner.  But, there are some pros and I think it is important that Southern Africans are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to benefication and they are saying wherever there is a business case, we want you to beneficiate.  But, when it comes to taxes and consultation, we will give you an open door

Makwetla: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly, he’ll be back with us at the same time next week.