Group claims mines forget about communities

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) group has lambasted the Minerals Council South Africa for claiming that mining firms were taking good care of mining-affected communities.

Macua was reacting to the council’s recent statement stating that the mining sector had spent about R4.9 billion on social investment and development programmes last year.

It said communities had benefitted from several community development projects of the social and labour plans (SLPs) concerning each mining right. It added that some companies had conducted additional corporate social investment (CSI) work beyond their SLP commitments.

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Macua rejected this. It said the mining-affected communities remained poor, even though minerals worth billions were being extracted from their land.

‘False and misleading’

Macua spokesperson Magnificent Mndebele said it rejected the attempts by the council to “present a false and misleading narrative to the people of South Africa and calls upon the council to use its immense resources, which are extracted from SA’s collective wealth, to work with communities in meaningful and equal engagement”.

“This is to develop open, transparent and inclusive mechanisms to account for the affected people.

“On 18 June, 2024, the council released a media statement trumpeting the industry’s commitment to making a meaningful contribution and to play a catalytic and developmental role in mining regions and the country.”

Mndebele said Macua’s research had showed that mining companies contributed R7.5 billion to community development, or at least 0.9% of the industry’s turnover. This meant that the council’s current figures showed a slump in real terms by over 53%.

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It had also declined from 0.9% of turnover in 2017 to 0.45% in 2023. He said the declining rate of investment in community development by the sector was an ongoing reality.

Macua’s 2018 baseline report had estimated that up to 79% of the claimed community investments did not reach affected communities and did not result in tangible outcomes for them.

“This pattern of misappropriation and failure to deliver on the claimed projects… continued to be reflected in our 2022 report.

“Indications from our 2024 report show this pattern has not abated… Instead the practice of claiming to have spent vast amounts of money on projects have shown to have been false, or vastly exaggerated,” said Mndebele.