As attempts to rescue illegal miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Benoni continue, people are starting to ask what can be done about this situation. According to Cadiz’s Peter Major, there are over 6,000 abandoned mines littering the South African landscape – that means over 6,000 mines whose owners government is unable to identify. These mines are an irresistible invitation to South Africa’s legion of desperate unemployed people, who are willing to risk life and limb to work these unsafe shafts in the hope of scratching together some kind of a living. Major suggests that government should treat these abandoned mines as an asset, licensing them to those who see an opportunity. Obviously, such a move would raise a number of safety issues – these mines were abandoned because it was uneconomical to work them safely after all. However, what is truly striking about this story is just how desperate South Africans are to earn a living. People are willing to risk everything just to work, to feed their families. If nothing else, the current tragedy should serve as a goad to government to start implementing pro-employment policies, to give South Africans the chance they are so desperate for: to work for a living. – FD
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GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Eleven illegal miners have been rescued from an abandoned gold mine in Benoni. They are due to appear in court tomorrow, while an estimated 200 remain trapped. Meanwhile, Amplats is suing AMCU for 600 million Rand to cover the cost of strike damages. Peter Major from Cadiz Corporate Solutions joins us in our studios, for more. Peter, this illegal mining story is probably one that has captured headlines this morning. Coming back to the mining, how exactly do they do this?
PETER MAJOR: Well, we have so many abandoned mines that cover so many hundreds of square kilometres, and we just don’t have the people, the legal authorities, or the landowners there to enforce ‘no trespassing’. When the Minister of Mines admits we have 6152 abandoned mines; that’s a lot of mines. We just don’t have the security, the money, or the personnel to prevent hard, desperate, employment-seeking opportunities and so these people are taking the only jobs they can find.
ALEC HOGG: You’re a lateral thinker, Peter. What would you do if you were sitting in the Minister’s shoes, about these abandoned mines.
PETER MAJOR: Well, instead of looking at all those abandoned mines as a liability or a problem, I’d look at them as an asset. Maybe, as with a company going into liquidation, you’d have an auction. You’d say I have 6152 abandoned mines. I’m going to have a public auction and you can get your permit within 24 hours or maybe within seven days. We have lovely commodity prices and we have good world demand for most of those products. Now, all those abandoned mines don’t still have economic ore in them, but many of them do. When people with no tools, minimal experience, and no support whatsoever are illegally making money out of them, you’d think we could do that with technical support, experience, and new capital.
ALEC HOGG: But we hear about them only when there’s a problem – only when we know that they’re unsafe.
PETER MAJOR: Yes, if no one goes on the mine and nobody gets hurt or has a violent act taken against them, then you’re right: we don’t hear about them. However, they’re out there – 6152 abandoned mines are out there and the worry is there are going to be more of them out there if we can’t get our industry structured. I’m listening to your interview with Steve Wozniak, Alec. We could pull so much of what he said about labour. I’d love him to talk to the unions here and to government. He said ‘get a job – any job. Get some security. Get a baseline to operate and then use your off time to be constructive’.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Peter, coming back to these abandoned mines; do you know who owns them?
PETER MAJOR: Well, the government says an abandoned mine is one where they can’t really trace the ownership. What’s worrying is if there are 6152 abandoned ones where they can’t trace the ownership, how many more can they trace the ownership to and they can’t hold the people to account? There are many reasons why we’ve ended up in that situation, but without going back through history…let’s just say government now owns those mines. The mining companies own the ones that are attributable, whether that’s another 100, 200, 500, or 1000, I don’t know. Life’s about being accountable, right. If government owns those, then they’re accountable and government should be measured. ‘What have you done with those 6000 abandoned mines for the last ten years? You keep telling us about them. What have you done? Have you tried to sell them? Have you tried to auction them off? If people don’t want to buy them, why is that? If foreigners don’t want to come in, do you think that maybe you had something to do with that perception?
ALEC HOGG: Good thoughts and good ideas. Peter, just to close off with, Anglo Platinum now suing AMCU for 600 million Rand: that’s a development of interest.
PETER MAJOR: Look, it’s a big number. There was a precedent, I think, a couple of years ago. A different union was sued for half a million. Was it FAWU? Yes, the authorities had videotapes of the people and it was shop stewards that were doing the destruction. Any time you can identify someone who’s being violent or destructive; they should be brought to account. That’s what democracy is all about – isn’t it – it’s responsibilities and rights, 50/50, and this should have been done a long time ago. Any act of violence, whether it’s during a strike – legal or illegal strike – or in day-to-day: any violent act or destructive act…people should be charged and held accountable.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Thanks so much Peter, it’s always interesting hearing your insights.
