AFRICANEWS
South AfricaA sunset industry on a global missionEconomyBy Ben Molapo
Since 1994 the black economic empowerment in mining has amounted to little more than token appointments of few blacks to top positions to pursue well-defined roles. That is " you sort out the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and present a clean face to Africa and the rest of the world". These were the views expressed by some of the black people who have made their way up the upper echelons of the SA mining companies at Mining Summit 26 in February in Pretoria. Other than that the change has been in the form of names like from Western Holdings Gold Mine to Machabeng Gold Mining, and many others which adopted African names. The actual transformation in mining sector has not taken place. Instead what took place has been, according to Gwede Mantashe, the General Secretary of the NUM an " Irish coffee scenario", where a few drops of cream are sprinkled on top, inside the taste or the reality remains hot (hostile) for a meaningful black economic empowerment to take root. "We have witnessed people been set up for a failure", he said. South Africa has a range of mineral ore bodies still to be mined. The country has been mining gold and diamond for over the last hundred years but the studies show that in next 15 years, the country's contribution to global gold output will be half its current output. Among the communities of mining nations, SA mining industry is considered to be a sunset industry, sharply on decline in term of employment and its contribution to the country's foreign earnings. A huge number of communities that depended on mine jobs face social and economic crisis. There has been two fold employment downward trend in mining. That is the introduction of mechanization and reduced exploration budgets in South Africa. SA companies are looking for greener pastures elsewhere in Africa, where mineral extraction is not capital intensive. The future looks bleak for many families in Lesotho, which gets 70 per cent of its rural household income from migrant remittances from the mines. A number of ex-mineworkers from Lesotho always leave the mines with a hope that they might be called back to the mines. But with the fall of gold price the spirit of many workers has been dampened. Shoaepane Mohatonyane, a sole breadwinner for the family of 8 dependents from Lesotho is one of the thousands mineworkers whose hopes have been shattered by the industrial downscaling. Laid off last year Mohatonyane, says he sees no life after being a mineworker for 19 years. "Only God knows how I make it through every day. I have nothing, except to a hope that luck will come my way and one day I will be called back to the mine", he said. Lesotho does not have any economic means to absorb a large number of workers retrenched from the SA mines. Unlike in the 70s & 80s when the Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA) was behind the labour recruitment drive in the subcontinent, a large number of ex-miners now have to travel to mine gates, hoping for re-employment. The TEBA is a recruiting agency for SA Chamber of Mines, and it has 70 labour recruiting centres in Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho and SA's rural areas. The roles of these centre is now diminishing. Despite the fact that history has positioned the SA as a leading mining country and that SA mining conglomerates are marauding around Africa and the world, acquiring mining rights, but have left behind a trail of economic and social misery. The SA mining workforce is characterised by high level of illiteracy and by a world standard do not match the calibre of the mining conglomerates they work for. And as a result of a large number of black mineworkers being housed in single sex hostels, the HIV/AID epidemic is more rampant in mining than in any other economic sector. More than 46 per cent of the industry workforce is reportedly HIV positive. There is also an increasing level of poverty in rural areas where mining industry historical used to draw its labour. Last February, the Mining Summit, attended by all stakeholders in mining, that is government, business and labour representatives was, the Ministry of Mine & Energy Affairs, Pumzile Mlambo-Ngcoka's attempt to kick start the process that will iron out things. Perhaps elevating the industry state to the heights it deserves. The industrialisation of SA centred around the discovery of Gold in Witwatersrand and diamond in Kimberely, Northern Cape Province in 1880s. Up until 1980 gold exports alone accounted for more 50 per cent of the country foreign earnings, employing a huge number of workers from the sub-continent's rural areas. The Summit which was lauded by many as a process long overdue, looked into three key issues; the Human Resource Development, the Promotion of the Mining, and the Integrated Rural Development to address the socio-economic effects of the industrial downscaling. Although on Integrated Rural Development parties agreed in principle on a number of issues, a lot is still to be worked on the other two key issues. In an industry, where race , as well tribalism were and still are a defining feature of workplace arrangement, black employees' entry into certain occupations has and continues to be limited or literally denied. That is although the SA mining conglomerates are now positioning themselves to play a global role only few white South Africans who are geologists, mining engineers etc will benefit from the current development trend. The bulk of the industry's workforce are least educated if ever.
| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |
USAGE/ACKNOWLEDGE Contents can be freely reproduced with acknowledgements. The by-line should read: author/AFRICANEWS. Send a copy of the reproduced article to AFRICANEWS.
AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenya
|