‘Anglo must address its poor legacy of harming communities’ 5 February 2021

In any other year, the great and the good of the global mining industry would be gathered in Cape Town for the annual Mining Indaba. This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisers instead held a two-day, virtual conference featuring, among others, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani. Cutifani emphasised the significance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to Anglo’s strategy; the importance of social responsibility; and the great work the company is doing to support local communities throughout the global pandemic. He acknowledged that because local communities are most affected by mining companies’ operations, they are important stakeholders. Their needs and quality of life should be accounted for not only during a mine’s lifespan, but in the future too. But mining companies cannot only look at their shiny future, they also have to look at their murky past, where the lasting impacts of poor practices are still devastating vulnerable communities.

Anglo’s position regarding the class-action lawsuit filed against it in the high court in October on behalf of more than 100,000 claimants, most of whom are children with uncertain futures, is just one unfortunate example. The Kabwe lead mine in Zambia was in the Anglo group for 50 years and was one of the world’s most productive lead mines, all this time causing widespread contamination of the soil, dust, water and vegetation. Mining and environmental experts have concluded, based on the levels of annual production at Kabwe, that two thirds of the lead pollution in Kabwe stemmed from the years Anglo was involved in the operation…Anglo’s human rights policy, consistent with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights, states: “[W]here we have caused or contributed to adverse human rights impacts we will contribute to their remediation as appropriate.” However, Anglo has so far distanced itself from any responsibility for the crisis in Kabwe.

…This is not the first time Anglo has resisted compensating the victims of its business operations. Tens of thousands of miners contracted the serious and often fatal lung diseases silicosis and silico-tuberculosis from working in its gold mines in SA. The miners’ communities were decimated by disease and poverty. Despite being aware of the victims’ predicament for decades, it was only after many years of protracted litigation that Anglo and other gold mining companies agreed to a series of compensation payments, culminating in a $400m class-action settlement in 2018. Like the Kabwe case, the silicosis litigation concerned claims over historic actions and omissions with present consequences…Cutifani seems more comfortable championing Anglo’s commitment to a 100-year future for the local community than he is accepting his company’s liability for nearly 100 years of devastation. This cannot be reconciled with Anglo’s founding principles, best espoused by its founder, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, in 1954: “The aim of [Anglo American] is, and will remain, to earn profits for our shareholders, but to do so in such a way as to make a real and lasting contribution to the communities in which we operate.”