CGE responds to gender equality, women empowerment and transformation in the mining industry
The Mining Indaba held in Cape Town from 5-8 February 2018 brought the spotlight on the issues of gender equality, women empowerment and the transformation agenda. In the first of two of the commissions at the mining indaba, the panelists were set to discuss “Gender Proactive Mining Law and Policy”.
This commission comprised an expert panel of legislation drafters, women in Mining specialists and mining legislation facilitators who discussed how mining laws could unlock the potential of women in the sector, consider the template sections and points, and assess which of the country’s legislative frameworks are most likely to promote gender proactive mining.
The second commission of panelists discussed “Closing the Gender Gap in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM): A Conversation Amongst Female Leaders”. It is estimated that Artisanal and small-scale mining in Africa provides approximately 9 million rural jobs of which women represent as much as 50% of the total labor force, depending on the specific country.
This panel wanted to ascertain if they are facing similar issues that women in the industrial sector face, and that if so, what lessons women’s movements could learn from their respective experiences in terms of closing the gender gaps. In addition, an important issue to consider is whether or not there is a possibility of creating a universal framework to address gender gaps across the entire mining sector.
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) believes that having the two topics discussed at the Mining Indaba would go a long way in ensuring that issues of gender equality, women empowerment and transformation are prioritised by the mining executives.
Women Empowerment Principles according to the United Nations Global Compact seek to point the way to best practice by elaborating the gender dimension of corporate responsibility. These seek to inform other stakeholders, including governments, in their engagement with business.
Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) also calls for reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national law.
According to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes, so that before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men.
The findings of the CGE’s research work conducted in 2015 on the mining sector in South Africa found that there are small-scale initiatives that are being put in place by some of the mining companies in their efforts to empower women. However in most instances these initiatives are minor and insignificant, leading to a very slow pace of change, if at all.
In addition, the lack of long -term commitment by senior leadership within these mining companies accounts for the widespread limited progress made across the sector. The overall findings of the CGE’s research in the mining sector confirms common knowledge that the sector remains largely dominated by men, and the pace of transformation is severely stalled. Moreover, women’s representation remains insignificant, especially within the senior level leadership structures where meaningful decisions are made to effect gender transformation.
Similarly, progress is largely limited in terms addressing some of the workplace issues of concern for women in the mining sector, such as personal protection equipment, safety underground, sexual harassment and ablution facilities.
The advent of democracy in 1994 brought with it important gender equality related policies and legislative changes which saw all labour restrictions swept away, especially with the introduction of new labour legislative frameworks outlawing discrimination and emphasising gender equality and transformation in the workplace.
Despite the introduction of the Mining Charter, Code of Conduct and the Broad -Based Socio-Economic Empowerment, initiatives that sought to achieve 10 percent representation for women in the mining sector by 2009. Limited progress has been noted to date.
Despite strides being made from the 2 per cent level of women’s participation in the sector in 1994 to the current 10 per cent target, there seems to be resistance in meeting the target. There is no gender responsive budgeting, which often implies limited resources to ensure the upskilling of women to take over or compete on equal footing with their male counterparts in the sector.
The provisions of Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality (WEGE) Bill which demand that 50 percent of all positions in senior level organisational decision-making structures be occupied by females are largely being ignored. Moreover, the current Mining Charter which provides for a 40 per cent target for participation by historically disadvantaged South Africans, which includes women to be represented boards, is being resisted by many of the mining houses.
The CGE takes an exception to this act of omission on the part of the leadership of the mining houses and the Chamber of Mines. Surely ethical business conduct must include how these players relate to and treat women, if the Constitutional imperative to promote respect for and protect gender equality is to be realized.
As the CGE we call upon the Chamber of Mines and the Department of Mineral Resources to revise its Code of Conduct to include clear guidelines to ensure the fair and equal treatment of women in the mining industry as a whole. We call on the Department of Mineral Resources to lead an audit of transformation and gender equality related programmes across the mining industry, and to insist that all relevant structures within mining companies be capacitated to develop clear women’s empowerment and gender transformation programmes.
The CGE reserves its rights to call upon the Chamber of Mines, Department of Mineral Resources, individual mines and other relevant stakeholders to appear and account before it in line with its monitoring and evaluation role under the Constitution (Sec 187) and the CGE Act No 39 of 1996, ( Section 11).
Enquiries:
Javu Baloyi
Tel: 083 579 3306
