S. Africa: Report uncovers serious non-compliance with Social Labour Plans by three prominent mining companies
‘UNEARTHING THE TRUTH HOW THE MINES FAILED COMMUNITIES IN THE SEKHUKHUNE REGION OF SOUTH AFRICA’ February 2022
The extractives industry in South Africa has a dark and sordid history characterised by discrimination, exploitation and exclusion. The mining industry was both a beneficiary and a driver of colonialism and apartheid in its economic, social and legal manifestations. As the mining industry grew, Black communities were driven away from ancestral lands and ghettoised into informal settlements. The mining sector also perpetuated and strengthened the apartheid state through ill treatment and economic exploitation of Black workers.
Given this past, the post-apartheid government, has made some attempts to regulate mining operations and to offset the challenges wrought by mining in local communities through the adoption of new legislation which includes Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) - legally binding mechanisms through which mining companies are required to address socio-economic impacts of mining on communities surrounding the mines. Despite this, there is a growing body of research which shows that this legislation has done little to transform how mining companies operate. This is predominantly due to impropriety on the part of the mining sector coupled with lack of state oversight on their activities. A manifestation of this impropriety is the failure by some mines to abide by the obligations which arise from their SLPs.
This report examines the compliance of Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) of three mining companies in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) area, namely Twickenham Platinum Mine (Twickenham), Marula Platinum Mine (Marula) and Sefateng Chrome Mine (Sefateng) and finds that these mines are to varying extents in non-compliance with aspects of their SLP obligations, resulting in human rights abuses in the communities they operate in.