Business Report writes that for years social and labour plans (SLPs) have not been in line with some of the objectives of the Mineral and Petroleum Resource Development Act (MPRDA), and should be overhauled to include the needs of communities.  

These are some of the findings contained a recent Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) report, which calls for a people-centred system that involves communities at the core of the creation of SLPs and which responds to the needs of communities.  SLPs are plans companies need to submit to the MPRDA on how companies need to share mining benefits with workers and communities.  CALS argues that as communities, along with workers, are the principal intended beneficiaries of SLPs, it follows that they ought to participate meaningfully in the conception and design of SLPs and also their amendment.  The key finding in the report is that there has been inadequate consultation in the drafting of the SLPs.  It also found that few SLPs acknowledge the disproportionate negative impacts of mining on women.  “A possible solution is direct consultation of communities' and workers' needs to be mandatory and a clear minimum process”, the report recommends.

• Read this report by Dineo Faku in full at Business Report
• Read too, Mining’s social and labour plans still sideline local communities, report finds, at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page