COSATU statement on the Mining Indaba

6 February 2017

The Congress of South African Trade Unions denounces the four day Mining Indaba that starts today in Cape Town ,as  another talk shop that will do very little to bring about the necessary changes and transformation of the sector. ThisMining Indaba is dominated by free market acolytes and true believers, whose sole mandate is to intensify their egregious assault on worker rights.

The mining sector has seriously failed the workers, our economy and our continent in general. They continue to pay slave wages, retrench workers without retraining them or helping them start some income generating projects ;and have been nothing but a classical example of the immorality of Capitalism and its festering greed.

The only way for the role-players in this Indaba to try and recoup some semblance of legitimacy and relevance will be for them to start taking seriously the five {5} point pledge plan that is meant to achieve zero harm with regard to mining fatalities. The key question for mining bosses is what kind of prevention mechanism they are going to implement to reduce and ultimately stop mining fatalities. Our government needs to present tangible enforcement mechanisms and hire more inspectors to ensure that there is compliance in the mines.

The role-players should appreciate that this Mining Indaba is taking place under the shadow of the Lily Mine tragedy and the missing miners {Mrs Pretty Mabuza, Mr Solomon Nyarenda and Ms Yvonne Mnisi}, who are still trapped underground at Lily Vantage gold mine in Mpumalanga since the 15th of February 2016.

This Indaba will be a spectacular failure if it only focuses on profit maximisation and increased mechanisation of the sector ,without paying serious attention to job security, economic growth and access to educational, housing and other facilities for the mine workers. COSATU wants to see all those companies that exploit wasting assets , such as mines compelled to provide their workers with adequate housing, training and opportunities for promotion.

What is clear for all stakeholders in the mining sector is that the price for getting economic relations wrong is calamity,as we are witnessing currently. The mining sector cannot continue to operate the same way it has been operating over the last hundred years.

Mine owners have to deal with the spectre of violence that continues to haunt the sector , especially in the Platinum sector. They have to acknowledge and confront the fact that they are primarily responsible for fostering discord and violence in many workplaces in the sector. This quest for super profits has created orphans and cost workers their lives.

The federation expects this Indaba to reflect and resolve on the environmental damage that this sector has inflicted on this country and this continent. We want to hear them talking about how they are going to improve in implementing mine closures, especially considering the mining industry’s poor environmental legacy. We still see many mines being abandoned, with mine shafts left open, resulting in the development of contaminated mine water.

This has spawned the tragic problem of illegal mining that according to the  2009 South African Human Rights Commission report revealed that these illegal miners were under the control of criminal syndicates that were working with the so called legitimate companies to exploit these vulnerable workers.

Government needs to do more to monitor the implementation of the current financial assurance policies that are meant to help with the rehabilitation of closed mines.

COSATU only wants to hear our government talking about controlling and putting strategic commodities such as gold, platinum and steel under government control. This strategic nationalisation will go a long way in addressing the problems engulfing the mining sector.

Workers know that they cannot escape oppression , poverty , insecurity and racism unless they are in control of their own lives. The Mining Indaba needs to know that workers do not want handouts and do not want decisions taken on their behalf but want to be part of the decision making process at every level. It is our belief that only collective ownership of our strategic natural resources can help us achieve full political and economic emancipation for the working class.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 6 February 2017