Mining houses in North West have been accused of whitewashing their community involvement and “plundering” the environment.
A new study on the corporate social responsibility programmes of mining corporations in North West, released recenty, questions whether the houses are doing enough for the environment and its surrounding communities, and if mine safety standards are up to scratch. The research includes mining houses Anglo Platinum (Amplats), Implats, Lonplats and Xstrata.
The study, by the Bench Marks Foundation for Southern African for Corporate Social Responsibility, says a host of broken promises made by the mines to the communities were unearthed during the study, which was conducted over a period of eight months last year.
The report found the environment was suffering under the mines, and that the safety standards were not quite up to scratch.
The study is critical of Amplats’s safety programme. Last week Anglo Platinum, the world’s largest platinum producer, stopped production at its biggest mine after the death of 17 workers this year. This was after new Anglo American Plc CEO Cynthia Carroll said a “dramatic improvement” in safety was needed. London-based Anglo American owns 75% of Anglo Platinum. But the study said in 1999, it was found that despite the mine’s corrective measures predetermined safety objectives were not being adequately enforced or coordinated. Last year the researchers found these measures still had not been met.
Xstrata’s performance is also criticised in terms of fatalities, with the report saying the group’s record is the worst in South Africa.
The report also shows that the HIV/Aids infection level in the Rustenburg area is nearly 60%, and respiratory problems account for 80% of medical visits.
All mines have social responsibility programmes, says the study. “But these do not address the impact of mining on communities.
“These are designed for media consumption,” the researchers say, labelling the programmes “corporate propaganda”. The researchers found that most mines had social plans as required by the Mining Charter. However, these were not readily available to the public and many were not the product of consultation with communities.
The foundation said mines are “plundering” the environment and the situation in the province should be a matter of grave concern to all communities living in the area. It criticises the “complete lack” of independent environmental monitoring in the region and says there is little independent air quality monitoring capacity at local and district levels.
The report blames land degradation, erosion and the destruction of vegetation for using up valuable water resources, including the millions of cubic litres of underground water that are pumped through mine operations each year.
Anglo Platinum’s Trevor Raymond says his company believes it has been unfairly singled out in comments on health and safety issues, especially in news releases taken from the report. Anglo Platinum participated in the Bench Marks study, provided information to its researchers and was generally satisfied that the report was balanced and factual. “These [news] releases have resulted in sensational erroneous reporting,” said Raymond.
Songezo Zibi, communication manager at Xstrata, says his company welcomed the report. Xstrata had committed R100-million for community development, half of which would be spent in the Xstrata Alloys area of operation. Owing to bureaucratic hold-ups, though, its programmes have not been implemented as quickly as was hoped. Zibi said the Xstrata Alloys had no fatalities last year, so the assertion that the group’s performance was the worst is not accurate.