KFC, COKES AND CROOKED CHIEFS

Corrupt, lazy and ignorant traditional leaders are losing us billions

Ihaven’t been to the annual Mining Indaba in Cape Town in a long while, but come February I will be there. I’m going to set up a little table and two chairs and ask mining investors to come over and speak to me frankly and honestly about how they navigate South Africa’s traditional leadership system. Because, my friends, mining companies and executives in this fine country have a dirty little secret we don’t talk about: traditional leaders in the mineral-rich belts and how corrupt, unaccountable and destructive they are.

I am being serious. They are the originals of what my astute friend Moeletsi Mbeki once called “architects of poverty”.

No-one talks about it. No-one writes about it. Yet everyone does it. It’s bribery. It’s corruption. Mining minister Gwede Mantashe and his ministry need to find institutional ways to bring this to an end before it destroys all meaningful investment in the sector.

This is how it works. A rich seam of platinum, chrome, lithium, manganese or some other mineral runs through land designated as belonging to one or other tribal grouping. In these groupings there are kings, chiefs, princesses and princes, cousins, sons and daughters of uncles and aunts, plus their retinues.

This is where it gets interesting. When potential mining investors need to do some prospecting, they must go through the state — and the tribal authorities. If they need to go ahead and put in expertise, equipment, personnel and dig in the ground, they need to go through these authorities. Our law states that the traditional leaders may be owners of the surface land, but the wealth beneath belongs to the republic.

Ask any mining entrepreneur and they will tell you about these chiefs, who call themselves monye mmu (owner of the soil). These men they are almost always men draw a salary from the government, are generally poorly educated, and are surrounded by a sea of poverty as their people have no jobs or opportunities. These men have demands before you go and see them to present your plan to invest in their area, create jobs, raise living standards, build schools, and help build a better country.

Don’t laugh. Fellows of this ilk in Limpopo generally ask for 20 buckets of KFC, 10 bottles of a blended whisky, 20 bottles of Coca-Cola, and an envelope stuffed with R100 notes. Hold on, you may say. That’s all? Yes, that is what it takes to “open the mouth” of a traditional leader sitting on billions of rand of unexploited mineral wealth in a sea of poverty in Limpopo. These “chiefs” see a plethora of supplicants a month and each one arrives carrying these “gifts”.

The dirty secret is that most mining entrepreneurs do it. They don’t say no. This “opening of the mouth of the chief” is now regarded as standard procedure. Many executives will tell you that they are following protocol: it is disrespectful to meet the king without bringing a “token of appreciation”. A new business development executive’s role in the mining sector these days involves rushing about buying bottles of whisky and stuffing envelopes for these nonentities so that they can gain the approval of “the community” for their mine venture.

These unelected, unaccountable, generally ignorant, greedy traditional leaders hold inordinate powers and have no clue just what their corruption and dilly-dallying with mining investment is doing. Communities that could have access to jobs are victims of these characters because, well, why rush to approve an entrepreneur’s bid if he can be squeezed for more buckets of fried chicken?

Worse, the company that ends up getting the nod may be the worst possible partner for the “community” (read: this unelected chief) because they were generous with the brown envelope and the fried chicken.

The combination of these unelected and greedy amateurs plus general lethargy at the department of mineral resources & energy are blocking or delaying thousands of projects. Politicians need to do something about this. South Africa is sitting on billions of rand of minerals that could be exploited ethically for the benefit of the nation. The fact that these unelected, ignorant and corrupt chiefs are blocking key investment without any proper oversight of their actions needs a policy and regulatory overhaul. They need to be removed and a transparent, scientific process needs to be followed.