BL Premium reports that Minerals Council SA (MCSA) officials said on Wednesday that ailing municipalities were leaning heavily on mining companies for infrastructure projects, diverting spending away from investments and fuelling strife around mines.
In the latest flare-up of tensions around mining operations as SA’s economy falters and unemployment grows, Rio Tinto shut its Richards Bay Minerals operation after an employee was shot and wounded in community unrest. There were an estimated 330 community unrest incidents recorded by mining companies in the first six months of 2019 compared to 260 incidents during the whole of 2018, according to data collected by the MCSA (previously called the Chamber of Mines). Protests have brought mines to a standstill as communities demand jobs and the right to supply mining operations with services and materials. In revealing the compliance levels of 32 MCSA member companies with the now defunct second Mining Charter replaced at the end of 2018, the MCSA’s Tebello Chabana conceded that the reasons for community unrest were manifold. A key problem was that municipalities signed off mining companies’ social and labour plans as the legal representative of communities, using mining companies to ease pressure on their finances and devolve responsibility. The consequences of “dysfunctional” municipalities focusing on mining companies to provide basic services was that it was unlikely there would be sustainable businesses in those communities once mining of finite resources had ended, Alex Khumalo, the council’s head of community relations, pointed out.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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