CRISIS: Protests in the Steelpoort Valley in Limpopo have led to the torching of vehicles, and now mining companies are fearful of billions of rand of investments being put at risk. Companies in the area include Glencore, Anglo American Platinum and Northam Platinum. Picture: SUPPLIED
Mining companies say their hands are forced by violent protests, writes Allan Seccombe
A MAJOR crisis is brewing in the Steelpoort Valley in Limpopo, where platinum and chrome are mined, putting billions of rand of investments in mines and smelters under threat of suspension or closure.
Chrome and platinum prices have fallen and the production challenge caused by violence is putting an extra strain on the producers of the minerals.
Mining-related businesses there employ 25,000 people and any suspension or closure of mines and smelters there would have potentially crippling consequences.
A Greater Tubatse Municipality document for this year shows unemployment in south-eastern Limpopo soaring from 41% to 56% as the population there grows a projected 34% to 580,000 people.
A delegation of mine officials intends meeting the ministers of mineral resources and safety and security to discuss the deterioration of law and order in the area and its effect on decisions to keep their operations open or to suspend them. The firms include Glencore, Northam Platinum, Anglo American Platinum, China’s ASA Metals, Samancor and African Rainbow Minerals.
Asked how real the chance was of mining firms suspending billions in investments, one executive said their hands were being forced by increasingly violent protests that prevented workers from going to work and put their safety at risk.
"We could either take the pain of shutting down for three to six months, while this gets resolved and have a sustainable operating environment for years ahead, or we could carry on like we are now, with mines and smelters shut down every time there’s violence or a protest — and it’s happening more regularly now — and eventually lose the support of our shareholders to continue operations here," according to the executive.
The fear is that what started as a justifiable protest over poor service delivery has been hijacked by greed and the self-interest of people wanting to get rich on the back of supply contracts with the mines and the provision of local labour.
Political parties like the Economic Freedom Fighters have taken advantage of the unsettled situation in the run-up to next year’s municipal election, raising the spectre of political schisms complicating an already enormously fractured and fraught community.
No mining officials would go on the record about the problems affecting at least six major mining firms operating in the Steelpoort valley, for fear of invoking retribution from communities and splinter groups seeking to wrest economic advantage.
"These groups say black economic empowerment means nothing to them, that black ownership means nothing when we show them what we’re doing on those fronts. They want only locals to benefit and to be involved and they will tell us exactly who they want to benefit, not only from the mine-supply contracts, but who we employ," says a mine executive, who declines to be named.
"You can see that this is just greed and getting rich at the expense of everyone else. You can hardly call these legitimate community protests. No matter what we do, there’s always someone who wants more and more."
The reasons for the violence, prevalent for years, is ascribed by various people either to failure to deliver on promises to supply the region with water from the De Hoop dam or to complete a road for which funds have been allocated, but have been misappropriated.
The municipality says: "Due to its rural nature, the municipality is confronted with a high service-delivery backlog.
"The majority of the settlements are far apart, which makes the provision and maintenance of services very costly."
The protests have this year cost at least R100m in lost revenue.
For one resident, the situation is "anarchic", with mayors and traditional leaders sidelined.
The common answer to the crisis is the largely ineffective policing, with a number of officers in the area drawn from local communities, raising fears of reprisals for arrests.
The police sent in public order policing units when violence flared up, and did so again after 20 vehicles were burnt on Sunday, says police Col Ronel Otto.
"I won’t say violence has been on the increase, but there have been incidents throughout the whole of this year and we have increased policing levels in the area," she says, adding that 10 arrests were made after Sunday’s incident.
Locally hired police face difficulties in their communities, so police from outside are sent in during heated protests, she says.
In response to claims that the Department of Mineral Resources is not as active as it should be in participating or telling the community what is legally expected from the mines, spokeswoman Ayanda Shezi says the department is taking part in task team meetings.
Director-general Thibedi Ramontja — who visited the area this week — says it is unfortunate that a perception is being created that the department is not dealing with the matter with the seriousness it deserves.
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