Mining companies are breaking their promises - and the state is doing nothing about it
MACUA report finds mining companies are not sticking to their Social and Labour Plans
A three-year study of 11 mining companies has found they failed to meet the promises made in their Social and Labour Plans. Graphic: Lisa Nelson
A three-year study by Mining Affected Communities in Action (MACUA) has found that 11 mining companies have failed to meet the promises they made to their communities.
The report, titled “Looted Promises: the Crumbs Economy of Mining and the Myth of the Just Transition”, also finds that Parliament’s mining portfolio committee and the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DPMR) have failed to hold mining companies accountable.
The report studied the five-year Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) submitted by 11 companies Mpumalanga, North West, Free State, Northern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal ending between 2022 and 2024. Mining companies are obliged to submit SLPs to the DMPR as part of their application for a mining right. SLPs are valid for a period of five years, in which they need to be implemented.
In their plans, the 11 companies — South32, United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK), Palabora Mining Company (PMC), Tumelo Colliery, Bushveld Vatmeco Mine, Glencore Waterval Mine, Seriti Resources’ Klipspruit Colliery, Ikwezi Vanadium, Lentswe Tshipi Mine, Siyanda Bakgatla Platinum Mine (SBPM) and Tetra4 — promised to spend R376.25-million on community projects including roads and schools.
But when MACUA visited the communities, the organisation found that only R92-million in projects had been spent. Projects worth R284-million had not been completed.
MACUA conducted the social audits between 2022 and late 2024.
MACUA said collectively the companies had generated profits of R72-billion over the five-year SLP period. Yet less than 1% of profit had been spent on SLP projects.
“This is not underperformance. It is developmental theft— a system of Crumbs Capture, in which even the legally required entitlements of the poor are systematically looted, while mining companies and politically connected actors continue to profit from public deception,” said MACUA in the report.
According to the Minerals Council of South Africa mining companies claiming to represent 59% of the industry reported spending R4.9-billion on social investment in 2023. If the rest of the industry spent the same, the annual spend on community projects must have been R8.3-billion, or R16.6-billion over two years. If all the companies spent as little as the 11 surveyed by MACUA, this means more than R12.7-billion designed for community projects has not been spent.
The audits found only six of the 11 companies had made their SLPs publicly available, and only two had provided SLPs in a locally spoken language. Several companies, Glencore Waterval, Bushveld Vametco, Ikwezi, and Tumelo, refused direct requests to share their SLPs, citing internal policy.
The MACUA audit found that in Mononono, a rural community in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality and in Robakala in Madibeng Local Municipality, North West, fewer than one in ten promised projects had been completed by Lentswe Tshipi Mine and Bushveld Vatmeco Mine.
The auditors found Glencore Waterval Mine’s had failed to build a high school in Ikemeleng near Kroondal despite making such a commitment. Bushveld Vatmeco Mine in Robakala had failed to finish promised roads.
In Magojaneng community in Northern Cape, where United Manganese of Kalahari operates one of South Africa’s most profitable manganese mines, the mine promised to spend R172-million in its 2018-22 SLP. UMK promised that a 55km Khathu-Hotazel road project worth R28-million would benefit both the industry and local communities.
But MACUA found that the road’s design only benefits mining companies who transport minerals to Khathu. Most Magojaneng community members expressed no knowledge of the road project. Hardly any could recall any information about it. Three years after its supposed completion date, the road is still unfinished and invisible to the community it was intended to benefit.
UMK, co-owned by Chancellor House, the ANC’s investment vehicle, and Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, has never published its financials, but claims compliance through the DMPR’s self-reporting regime.
Many communities indicated that they had never been consulted by the mining companies operating in their communities and had no knowledge of what an SLP is.
“Decisions are made for us, not with us,” said one participant in MACUA’s survey.
In Pullens Hope, which is affected by the operations of Tumelo Colliery in Steve Tshwete Local Municipality in Hendrina, Mpumalanga, the mine failed to implement a road improvement project listed in its SLP. Residents who raised concerns at local forums were ignored or redirected, and no mechanisms were available for follow-up or resolution.
In Meloding, in the Matjhabeng Local Municipality, Free State, residents said a promised borehole and rain tanks project had vanished right after media appearances and political announcements.
“We feel like our suffering is used for paperwork,” one resident said during the audit.
This sentiment was echoed in nearly every community MACUA visited, reflecting the broader disempowerment and disenfranchisement that defines the relationship between mining companies and affected communities today.
Christopher Rutledge, MACUA-WAMUA Advice Office’s executive director, said MACUA’s findings were not based on speculation. “They are grounded in verified audit findings and reflect a consistent under-delivery rate of 77% —a rate that, if even partially representative of national performance, would constitute one of the largest public development failures in post-apartheid South Africa.”
“We are witnessing what can only be described as a national developmental crisis,” said MACUA in the report. “The scale, consistency, and audacity of this under-delivery — backed by ghost infrastructure, falsified reports, and complete absence of enforcement — requires immediate action at the highest levels.”
MACUA has consistently reported its social audit findings to the DMPR, but the department has failed to initiate any investigations or impose penalties on mining companies.
Parliament has similarly failed to act.
Views expressed are not necessarily those of GroundUp.
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