Mr Ferreira, President of AMMSA
Members of the council of AMMSA
Management and staff
Ladies and Gentlemen
May I start by thanking President Ferreira and the Council of Association of Mine Managers of South Africa (AMMSA) for inviting me to address this crucial annual general meeting. I am particularly pleased that you have chosen to have your AGM barely two days after our country celebrated Human Rights Day.
I trust that each of you has taken time out to reflect on what this day really means for our country and ourselves. Human Rights Day, by its very nature, is a sad reminder of what happened in the past where some people were denied their fundamental freedoms solely on the basis of the colour of their skin.
The seminal events originated in the Vaal triangle township of Sharpeville, just outside Vereeniging. The commemorations regularly held there and elsewhere should be taken most seriously by all of us. This is so that we can learn from past mistakes and repression. In this way we will be in a position not to repeat a disgraceful past.
Discrimination and sexism formed a vital part of the development and industrialisation of our country. In fact, this is an area where racial practices such as single sex hostels and migrant labour reigned supreme, which I would argue were very much part of the body politic and the denial of basic human rights.
So we have to show interest on this day for we have so much to celebrate now. Notably, the changes that all of us have worked to create a mining environment where all human beings have a stake, workers and mine managers included. In doing so we will be creating a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it.
Whenever I talk about this I always recall the example of the French who have celebrated with passion, and each year without fail, both the victory of the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille ever since those historic events of 1789. This should serve as a lodestar for us, in much the same way as the French – and other nations – have marked their laudatory achievements.
Mine managers are people whose labours can be so easily overlooked. Yet, the reality is that you are the very people who are at the coalface of mining, and responsible for day to day operations of the entire mining process. We are prone to underestimate your critical importance because you are stationed far away from the glare and glitz of air-conditioned offices and headquarters of mining companies.
It is a tribute to your resilience that you have soldiered on since the first mine manager was appointed 166 years ago, in 1846, which led to the formation of this association in 1892.
Our presence today, far away from your ordinary work stations and in conditions different to those we described earlier, is meant precisely to ensure that we honour your critical role as the oxygen and lifeblood of the mining industry.
We often focus on the boards and the Excos which are responsible for setting the overall agenda and policy direction for various mining companies. It is about time that we extend this to include such a crucial level of the management cohort, as represented by this association. If we work together, you too can become change agents who could play a key role in ensuring that we achieve the twin objectives of the transformation and the competitiveness that we have been striving for since the promulgation of our post- 1994 mining legislation, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).
In this regard I am pleased to note that you have taken it upon yourselves to transform and you have made modest attempts at bringing the previously disadvantaged South Africans into the mainstream of this association. In doing so you are giving concrete expression to the motto “charity begins at home” and you are acting in sync with the requirements of the MPRDA and the Mining Charter.
Let us draw inspiration from courageous compatriots of the past, such as Dr Danie Craven who was prepared to clash with Prime Ministers and was among those who saw how apartheid posed a danger to the competitiveness of rugby. Such people, who had a lot to lose, assisted in breaking the grip of the past in our country. You can, among other things, mentor aspirant black managers in the hard rock industry so that this cadre of managers can also draw on your successes and build on them. These modest steps can lay a firm foundation of a prosperous future.
Whilst we welcome the modest changes you have made in transforming your organisation, I believe that more still needs to be done totally to transform the industry at all its levels. This should include the employment of women - especially black women at both management and operational levels. This will ensure that this industry corrects the wrongs of the past that was characterised particularly by the domination of white males.
Accordingly, we also want to see this industry moving away from the current practice of employing blacks only to use them as "Government Liaison Officers." What instead the country requires is for this cadre of people to be given meaningful operational roles of the mining industry.
The question that exercises government’s mind is to what extent transformation of the sector has advanced the objectives of the Constitution and mining-specific legislation.
You have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the work experience and exposure provided to many graduates and potential managers is extended so that we have a pipeline of managers who will be able to do their jobs both domestically and also internationally.
Whereas in the past we would prepare our future managers for domestic needs, we are now operating in the global village where South Africans are leading major global mining companies. You have a role to play to preserve this leadership legacy which should help you to retain emerging and much sought-after black management talent. You can do this by helping these aspirant managers to go through such channels as the Government Certificates of Competency (GCC) - a requirement to be mine managers.
You also have the means and the possibility to provide opportunities, guidance and mentorship to the up-and-coming managers.
It is important for the entire mining industry to intensify compliance with all elements of the Charter. Whilst we have noted some progress in respect of ownership - meaningful ownership has not been achieved. The underlying empowerment funding models have resulted in the actual ownership being tied up in loans. Accordingly the net value of a large proportion of empowerment deals is often negative, due to the high interest rates on loans.
The realisation of the benefits of the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deals flowing to HDSA beneficiaries is delayed, and the nature of some of the deals are such that the repayments terms of HDSA continue beyond the life of mine. Lack of HDSA representation at board level limits their decision making authority, or, as minority parties they have little influence in major decision making. Women have not benefited from empowerment deals as envisaged, and there is a need for this matter to be addressed. Fronting still occurs in the industry and my department will be focusing on this matter to ensure that sustainable empowerment is realised in the industry.
The other area that the association is correctly focusing on is safety. We in the Ministry of Mineral Resources are concerned about this area, even though in general terms our safety performance – thanks to your role in the mines – is better now than in the period preceding 1994. We have to work together in this area to ensure that indeed there is zero harm, and that people who work in your operations are able daily to return to their loved ones.
We are calling on you to focus on standard operating procedures and to ensure that each employee who sets his or her foot in a mine knows exactly what to focus on - and that we have early warning systems to prevent accidents such falls of ground, and lost time injury cases that can be the result of machines or equipment not being constantly checked.
The hard rock mining industry where you are operating still has a long way to go to improve its safety. In 2011 alone, there were 51 fatalities in the gold sector and 37 in the platinum sector. So we are urging you to go back to the drawing board and constantly focus on safety performance. This should be extended to include the safety of female employees who too have a right to be employed in the hard rock mineral industry. In doing all of these steps you can take your rightful role to serve as a platform to share experiences and develop programmes for the benefit of this industry.
These should also include the general health issues such as noise induced hearing and silicosis diseases which further dispose miners to tuberculosis (TB) – a condition related to HIV and AIDS. We therefore call on you to play your rightful role, as proclaimed in your website, of submitting annual medical reports on time as stipulated in the Mine Health and Safety Act.
Another pressing issue that you have to address relates to compliance with the Mining Charter requirements and the social and labour plans. The importance of this can be seen in the sporadic unrest that takes place among communities surrounding the mining operations. There the youth are calling for employment and procurement opportunities, training opportunities, the building of schools and clinics. It is a fact that government alone cannot address the issues of poverty, unemployment and inequality. In this regard you have a responsibility to go through and to adhere to the SLPs that you submit to my department.
Do not delegate this to your development sections. Take an active personal interest. These may seem “soft” issues to you but to us they are the most important basis on which each mining right was granted. In this regard I would like to encourage you to try to bring together projects so as to get the benefits of scale and scope and to ensure that relevant section 102 applications are brought to the Ministry for approval.
The compliance audits that we have conducted do point to the prevalence of a situation where these SLPs are changed and amended without the relevant Ministerial consent. If we can get this right at the mine level where you are operating then surely we are on course to bettering the lives of the mining communities and the labour sending areas. Compliance with the law cannot and must not be shirked, as I have said previously.
It must be written in the hearts of the mining companies. You have the possibility to be torch bearers for your boards and you’re Excos. Seize this opportunity and the world is in your hands. You will be living up to the challenges of people like Nelson Mandela. I trust that I have given you food for thought and that you have a menu on your plate from which to choose. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said we must all be the change that we want to see in the world.
Your profession stands at the very centre of change. It will not happen without your commitment. Merely by inviting me to speak, which I deeply appreciate, will, I hope, serve as a tonic to inspire you to greater heights. In fact, I trust that you will be able to do much more than you have committed yourselves to in the various SLPs, and that you can have plans to over-achieve when it comes to the targets of the Mining Charter.
In conclusion, I thank your Association for giving me this opportunity to raise these crucial issues. It is hoped that the Association will grow in leaps and bounds and still be around for another century or more. Mining looks and plans far ahead, indeed. You, like the ruling party in our land, the ANC, have, I suppose, survived for a century or more because you have the ability to adapt to reality. This is another chance for your organisation to live for another century or longer. I am sure that, working together with my department, these things will be set in motion.
Thank you once more for the invitation and for welcoming us so warmly.
