SPEECH BY NATIONAL UNION OF MINEWORKERS PRESIDENT: SENZENI ZOKWANA TO THE MINING LEKGOTLA, GALLAGHER ESTATE MIDRAND, 05-06 JUNE 2012, June 5 2012
We welcome the opportunity to participate in this stakeholder engagement as workers in the mining industry .We have lived through the past three decades of our existence as a fighting union due to courage, hope and action. It is these characteristics we shall use to soldier on and drive the transformation agenda of the mining industry in South Africa.
The National Union of Mineworkers will continue to push and support the beneficiation initiatives as part of its broader national campaign for transformation of our society through economic growth, and a competitive mining industry .The economic growth of South African economy must breed political stability and entrenchment of constitutional democracy in our society.
Through economic growth and transformation our collective commitment must unblock all bottlenecks that are impediments for the industry to reach outlined targets and goals as captured in the MPRDA.
This transformation agenda is one of our only hopes as mineworkers. Linked to a growing competitive industry should be employment equity, affirmative action, and empowerment opportunities in redefining the mining economic landscape for the 21st Century.
We have noted the opportunistic misnomer of facilitating this kind of transition as a phenomenon in which black women became largely employed underground while white women were allocated powerful positions above the surface. This has clearly demonstrated that some of our partners in the industry unfortunately have a paper commitment and little respect for real transformation and empowerment of those historically disadvantaged.
Unwittingly by their little commitment or none at all to the process of change they have engendered an angry response which seeks to trigger a takeover of the industry in its entirety devoid the scientific approach being developed to unleash a systematic predictable change .These angry calls for total hostile takeover of corporate entities are just a populist posturing that seeks to vulgarize the sentiments echoed by the freedom charter.
It is against this background as workers we support the development of an activist state which will not be shy to intervene in the economy particularly in the mining industry .An informed model must first be developed and must also speak to sustainability, enterprise development, broad based economic empowerment, gender equity, affirmative action, community economic development . It must be driven by comparative analysis with the world `s best practices on state ownership of mining entities.
Above all the health and safety of workers must be guided by zero harm .The health of the environment must be protected by the polluter pay principle .These elements must be catered for in all scenarios we seek to develop for our future collaboration and sustainable business at this Mining Lekgotla.
The industry must promote the dignity of our people .This means it must accept and expedite the facilitation of home ownership of the workers without undue delay and reservations. This also means proper and transparent allocation of resources and commitment of funds to Social Labour Plans. Most of all the living, a safe and healthy workforce must define the human dignity of all who works in the mining industry.
The industry must consciously drive the ethos of doing business with responsibility .It must conduct its business clearly with responsibility such that those responsible for the negligence of unmanned mining holes which attract illegal mining, those who have left the scars of acid mine drainage on the water ways which affect negatively the mining communities where the poor and destitute reside, where the plants and aquatic animals live for their survival, are held accountable.
Honesty should be the currency that guides our bilateral and tripartite engagements .We should never have a scenario wherein when we review progress made, the employers have different statistics from those held by labour, government, and small empowerment black business in terms of MPRDA transformation targets as was the case in 2011. Just like we differed in 2008 when we said black ownership was lower than 09% and others argued that they have surpassed this figure.
It was a surprise that in 2011 and 2012 the employers would claim to have surpassed 26% a figure disputed by all of us labour, government, and empowerment mining capital. It was clear that the figures of transformation had become ideological battlefields. For what reason we should ask? It was a clear demonstration of dishonesty somewhat.
When we bind each other to a national commitment we should do so with honesty and trust and move together as a trustworthy collective .This is what the future of mining requires. Any scenario that is developed to guide us into a stable future should capture these important elements I have mentioned.
We are all trapped in this challenge together and we must ride through it as a trustworthy collective; if we falter, the angry voices and desperate calls may assume a state of legitimacy none of us will be capable to stop.
The ANC has been able to subject these angry calls to a scientific process and it is upon us to support these processes of policy formulation and engage with them constructively .The future of mining is not about investment and production alone it is about our survival. It is about our competitiveness and sustainability and building of economically viable mining communities .The future scenarios have no alternative but to capture what we already know.
I THANK YOU
Issued by NUM, June 5 2012
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
