Most communities feel no benefit from mines
ActionAid survey shows 39% of respondents want more employment
Most residents of eight mining communities that were surveyed by an antipoverty agency said that they derived no benefit from having a mine in their area and that its proximity brought health and environmental problems instead.
This is despite the stated intention of mining legislation and the Mining Charter for communities to benefit from social labour plans, which are the major drivers of corporate social responsibility.
The results of the ActionAid SA survey indicate that there has been little trickle down of community development as promised by the government and the industry. ActionAid released the results of the survey, the Social Audit Baseline Report, in Cape Town on Tuesday while mining companies were participating in the highpowered Mining Indaba nearby.
The survey was conducted in communities in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, the North West, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.
Of those interviewed 79% indicated that there was no benefit from the mines at all, while 8% felt that the mine only brought negative benefits such as sickness, dispossession and damages. Only 13% felt there were positive benefits such as clinics, roads and employment.
“The findings from the report has broadly confirmed our initial hypothesis that mining-affected communities are disproportionately negatively affected by mining, not only because of their proximity to the mines, but also because of the political, economic and social structural impediments they face in holding corporations and state parties to account,” the executive summary of the report reads.
The power of communities to decide on their wellbeing, governance and developmental paths has been stripped away, the report found.
Three core themes about the challenges faced by communities affected by mines emerged from the survey: environmental issues such as air, land and water pollution that affect human and livestock health, soil and water quality; living in an unsafe environment, relating to blasting close to houses and the tremors experienced due to blasting; and the threat to health ranging from TB to skin rashes and asthma.
Asked about what they would want to change in the relationship between the mine and the community, 39% of respondents wanted more employment, skills development and livelihood options; 35% wanted more accountability, consultation and communication by the mine; 20% wanted more basic services and infrastructure; and 6% wanted some form of compensation.
The outcomes suggest that communities “have consistently preferred outcomes that allow them to develop and act on their own agency through either gainful employment or access to other livelihood options”.
Of the value reported by listed JSE mining corporates from 2009 to June 2018, community investments amounted to 0.9%, according to reports by PwC.
“Up to 79% of respondents, those to whom these benefits are meant to accrue, have not participated in or benefited from the claimed investments.
“This implies that close to R5.92bn of the estimated R7.5bn earmarked for community development did not reach its intended beneficiaries during this period,” ActionAid said.