Luphert Chilwane
9 June 2008
Johannesburg — GOLD and coal mining companies on Friday defended themselves against charges of pursuing profits at the expense of community development, saying they were aware of the need to uplift the areas in which they operated, socially and economically.
Anglo American (AGL) and AngloGold Ashanti (ANG) were responding to a scathing report by the Bench Marks Foundation released last week that painted a grim picture of corporate social responsibility at platinum, coal, gold and uranium mining houses. The report used terms such as "treasure hunters" to describe prospectors in Limpopo, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga, which it said continued to exploit community landowners in pursuit of "super profits".
Anglo American spokesman Pranill Ramchander said: "We take the issues raised in the report seriously and are committed to their investigation. We look forward to engaging directly with the foundation to address a number of inaccuracies in the report."
AngloGold Ashanti, which has gold operations in Free State, North West and Gauteng, also said it was committed to partnering with communities to ensure their lives were better than before mining operations started.
AngloGold Ashanti public relations officer Julia Schoeman said: "Corporal social investment is one of many ways in which we work towards this. The value of these investments is thus felt mostly by employees' communities, including their families."
She said the company had fulfilled the target of 26% ownership for historically disadvantaged South Africans through the sale of assets to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and an employee share ownership plan , and the company was committed to engaging with all stakeholders. The group participated in consultative forums established by local authorities where corporate social responsibility investments and project priorities were set.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it expected mining companies to do more to uplift communities and carry out socially acceptable methods of mining.
NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said the problem of mining companies neglecting communities had been going on "for a long time and it is dividing communities".
"Although I have not seen the report yet, our interaction with different communities affected by mining activities has proven that the issue of consultation is not properly handled.
"Community members are divided, with some following local chiefs' decisions and others buying into the promises made by the mining companies", Baleni said.
"As NUM, we are advocating community development and improvement, but communities affected should be the ones benefiting most," he said.
Responding to complaints that foreigners were employed rather than locals, Baleni said there was a legislative document from the home affairs department dealing with that.
"Our only problem is when mining companies take advantage and employ a larger percentage of foreigners than locals, as was once the case in Primrose mine, where we discovered that 80% of employees were foreigners. That was not acceptable".
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