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Corporate Social Responsibility in South Africa's Mining Industry: Redressing the Legacy of Apartheid

Literature › Works

Busacca, Madeleine (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility in South Africa's Mining Industry: Redressing the Legacy of Apartheid. CMC Senior Theses, Paper 632 (Claremont McKenna College). Scholarship@Claremont, Claremont Colleges.
Type thesis
Scope Post-1994 South African economy
Method synthesis review
Period studied 1976–2013
Regions South Africa, Johannesburg, Marikana
Themes transition post apartheid, business and state, mining migrant labour, inequality poverty unemployment
Citation key busacca2013

Argument

The thesis argues that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can help redress the legacy of apartheid in South Africa's mining industry. It claims that the post-1994 state, through BEE/BBBEE, the 2002 Mining Charter and the MPRDA, has shaped and motivated CSR in mining. Anglo American is presented as a model case (Chairman's Fund, SEAT, Anglo Zimele) of CSR integrated into core business. It concedes that Anglo is an exception, that BEE benefits a small elite, and that the Marikana killings show the legacy remains unresolved. The argument rests on secondary literature and corporate reports and is largely normative and descriptive.

Evidence and method

Secondary literature (Hamann, Rajak, Visser, Porter and Kramer, Kloppers and du Plessis, Ponte et al.), Anglo American corporate reports (Report to Society 2008, Sustainable Development Report 2011), legislation and charters (MPRDA, Mining Charter, JPOI), Trialogue surveys, and news articles. No original archival or fieldwork data.

Findings

  • Mining houses were tied to colonial and apartheid policies through the migrant labour system, and mining communities were neglected. (p. 25)

    the activities of the mining houses were inextricably linked with colonial and subsequently apartheid policies through the migrant labor system.

  • Mining companies set up the Urban Foundation after the 1976 Soweto uprising, but activists dismissed such initiatives as a smokescreen. (p. 27)

    following the huge social and economic pressures caused by the Soweto uprising and riots in 1976, mining companies established the Urban Foundation to improve infrastructure and education facilities

  • The BEE scorecard was reported as the main driver of corporate CSR change in Hamann's interviews. (p. 21)

    the BEE scorecard was acting as the most important catalyst for CSR-related change in the companies

  • BEE-linked mergers and acquisitions rose after the Mining Charter. (p. 30)

    Between 1998 and 2002, the proportion of M&As connected to BEE was 10−15 percent. However, between 2003 and 2005, the proportion increased to 24−32 percent.

  • BEE has benefited a small black elite while most previously disadvantaged people remain poor. (p. 30)

    a new and growing class of wealthy, successful black South African capitalists.

  • The Mining Charter set a 26% HDSA ownership target within ten years, and Anglo American reports exceeding it. (p. 37)

    to achieve 26% historically disadvantaged South African (HDSA) ownership of the mining industry assets in 10 years by each mining company.

  • Black ownership transfer under BBBEE remains limited. (p. 22)

    Despite the fact that 90% of South Africa's population is non-white, only 2-20% of the JSE-listed corporations are owned by blacks.

  • South Africa remains highly unequal, with inequality correlated with race. (p. 15)

    the country has one of the highest Gini coefficients in the world of 0.62.

  • Anglo Zimele's small-business support is reported to have created substantial employment by 2008. (p. 42)

    By 2008, the 228 businesses supported by Zimele funding were responsible for employing 10,419 staff members and had a combined turnover of R1.3 billion ($157 million).

  • The author reads the 2012 Marikana killings as evidence of an unresolved apartheid legacy in mining. (p. 44)

    The strike symbolizes the deep-rooted violence that still remains in the South African mining industry as well as the unresolved legacy of apartheid.

  • Anglo's comprehensive CSR is an exception among South African firms. (p. 45)

    Anglo American's dedication to comprehensive CSR is more of an exception in South Africa, rather than the normal case.