Lonmin has failed on housing pledge – report

ON the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Marikana tragedy – and two years after Lonmin received a wake-up call from the Farlam Commisson – more than 13 000 of its employees still live in run-down shacks.

In a 61-page report, global human rights group Amnesty International slams the world’s third-largest platinum producer for failing to provide employees with access to adequate housing.

The report, to be released today, says under Lonmin’s 2006 social and labour plan (SLP), the company committed to build 5 500 houses by 2011, but it had only built three by 2012.

In May, the British-owned mining company announced that it was building its cash holdings to invest in projects that would position it to benefit from any upturn in the platinum price.

Tomorrow marks four years since 34 miners were shot dead by police during a wildcat strike at Marikana, 30km from Rustenburg in North West.

Lonmin has a permanent staff of 20 000 people, of which more than half are migrant workers.

The company provides accommodation to about 3 000 employees in renovated hostels.

The majority of its employees live in Nkaneng, one of the main informal settlements which has a population of 15 000 people and continues to grow.

The report says: “Conditions in the settlement are bleak. Sanitation consists of pit latrines and sometimes when it rains they flood and are unusable.

“The smell from the latrines in the crowded settlement causes serious discomfort to the people living there.”

A spokeswoman for Lonmin, Sue Vey said: “The challenges of housing is not only in South Africa, but globally, especially in regions of accelerated urbanisation and are well documented.

“In this regard, Lonmin acknowledges that the housing situation near Marikana remains a challenge,” she said. “Despite that, we made a start.”

Vey said the company was in line with its SLP commitments and had converted all of its 128 hostel blocks into single or family accommodation at a cost of R387-million.

Lonmin was also building flats, she said.

“The challenges are huge. As such, this is not an undertaking that any mining company can do successfully on its own.

“Success requires partnership with the government, the industry, community leaders, employees and NGOs like Amnesty International,” Vey said.

“We trust they will be willing to partner us in these efforts.”

Amnesty said none of Lonmin’s excuses stood up to scrutiny and that the Department of Mineral Resources had allowed Lonmin to “flout” the law.

The department should have take action to enforce the SLP, it said.