Two government ministers have backed calls for a mining indaba to review the industry and improve the living conditions of mineworkers and their families.
The industry is in turmoil, with mining companies threatening to retrench more workers and shut down some shafts. Many employees are still paid low wages and live in poor conditions despite companies committing to social upliftment in the Mining Charter.
The call was originally made by the SACP earlier this year. It was reiterated yesterday by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, the party’s general secretary, and his counterpart, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi. They were speaking at the National Union of Mineworkers’s central committee meeting at a venue near Johannesburg yesterday.
Nzimande told delegates the indaba was necessary so that stakeholders could figure out how to give substance to President Jacob Zuma’s call to radically transform the economy.
He said the meeting would have to look at how to take forward the government’s document on state intervention in the mining industry and security for mineworkers.
Since 34 miners were gunned down by the police on August 16, 2012 in the so-called Marikana massacre, about 30 more deaths have been recorded on the platinum belt, often due to inter-union rivalry.
The minister said that the indaba should also discuss centralised wage bargaining for all sectors and relook at the pay grading system for mineworkers, which currently did not make allowance for dangerous work.
Nzimande said it was a shame that workers were increasingly living in impoverished condition while making millions for companies.
He said the indaba should also look at the lack of beneficiation of the country’s minerals.
“I am told by [Trade and Industry Minister] Rob Davies that Italy makes more money from turning a diamond into jewellery than the money we get from selling it to Italy. This is crucial [in radically transforming the economy].”
South Africa has had no shortage of conferences on the mining sector and how to enforce the Mining Charter. There has also been no shortage of threats to revoke the mining licences of companies who do not comply with the charter.
The SACP also plans to revitalise its financial sector unit as part of its efforts to uplift the poor and working class.
It will once again include a focus on access to finance and credit. “The financial sector is dominated by the four big banks. It is very unhealthy,” Nzimande said. “Labour brokers, financial brokers… they are chowing your money.”
He said workers were exploited twice because of the low wages they earned and then the high bank charges they had to pay.
The campaign had some successes in the last decade, including the signing of the Financial Sector Charter, which is an agreement between the government, civil society, labour and banking companies.