Of all the concerns arising out of the ongoing turmoil in the mining industry, many in the government, organised labour and big business have tended to overlook one critical question: “How is it possible that the richest country in the world in terms of minerals remains bedevilled by growing levels in inequalities and the worst living conditions for workers and communities?”
Are we on a downward descent towards a repressive plutocracy masquerading as the national democratic revolution? A 2010 research report by Citigroup, a major US bank, revealed that South Africa had the richest deposit of minerals at $2.5 trillion (about R22 trillion).
A brief glance at Table 1 and Table 2 reveals a disturbing contradiction of the richest mineral country in the world not being represented among the 10 largest mining firms in the world, other than as an outpost of mineral exploitations.
Of the top five mining firms in the world, two were siphoned out of South Africa through mergers and acquisitions and overseas listings.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the tenor of national debate is fractured, lethargic and psychotic. Mining firms lament lost production, the tripartite alliance is obsessed about President Jacob Zuma, and black economic empowerment (BEE) politicians turned businessmen are concerned about their investments being under water as workers run amok.
We may not be losing ground, but Johnson Matthey, a research company, has just revealed that the local supply of platinum increased a paltry 4.7 percent in 2011 against 75 percent increase in North America and 21 percent rise from Zimbabwe.
But we are failing in innovation and leadership as the UN recently blasted the government for a poorly developed minerals beneficiation plan.
It is ping-pong game of self-interest contests, of a people that have lost sight of their nationhood. Perforce, a fair degree of entropy or order out of disorder is already at play with communities taking matters into their own hands.
In a sense, order out of disorder is a natural process of complex systems, especially where leadership is self-absorbed. The situation will indeed remain unstable until we see new leadership in a symmetry breaking with past practices, until the facade of BEE seeking to legitimise the exploitation of workers is abandoned only because the ANC is in charge.
Physicists have long recognised that symmetry breaking is a fundamental process in understanding the emergence of new order and structure with increasing complexity. In general, the emergence of order by symmetry breaking is explained by phase transitions of complex dynamical systems, which can be illustrated by a bifurcation process – general splits and new formations in the greater scheme of things.
Under such bifurcation, new order can be in the form of business practices, socioeconomic movements, ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) investing by pension funds, greater accountability by big business, and better co-operation between local government and mining companies.
The post-Marikana social bifurcation is of greatest concern because it has found political capital in violence and insurrection by exploiting the anger of workers and communities. The complex challenge for us is to not just understand the dynamics at play, but new ways of relating and engaging in order to build a new socio-economic order. There is little doubt that South Africa is at a point of instability.
Order and structure do not only emerge by decreasing energy and interaction. But by increasing energy and interactions as the old equilibria become unstable at critical points of instability, breaks down and new branches of local equilibria emerge with a new order, which can again become unstable and cause new formations.
Donald Molema is an actuarial consultant to pension funds and medical aid schemes.