Government failure, unemployment, tribal chiefs and opportunists make up a hornets' nest.
A withering state, monstrous potholes, audacious gangsters, hijacked dump trucks, proliferating “business forums” and traditional councils reduced to unseemly beggar status – these are among the elements mining companies have to contend with on the eastern limb of South Africa’s platinum belt, straddling Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Labour tensions have cooled in the decade since the Marikana massacre, but platinum in the wake of the pandemic remains a flashpoint of social unrest.
A single-lane steel bridge will be reconstructed by Booysendal to allow improved access to the villages in Limpopo. The twin scourges of unemployment and state failure are the main drivers of unrest, which is often ginned up by shadowy procurement mafias and other criminal elements seeking to shake down the sector.
“We employ 4,500 people at our Mototolo mine,” Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen said during a recent discussion with journalists. “There are 250,000 youth unemployed in the area and it is impossible for us to solve that kind of problem. But we are acutely aware we have a role to play.” Learners at Lydenberg Primary School watching a movie in the Afrikaans classroom. The school gets some of its financial support from the Booysendal platinum mine.
Tribal authorities in former homeland areas are often accused of milking their status as they hold the keys to communal resources. “The companies need to pay for most of it so we can control the costs and timelines. Otherwise, the money will just vanish,” one mining executive told DM168. Primary health care manager Sarah Dibakwane, nurse Asnath Mndebele and Jack Selowa at the Kiwi clinic in Lydenburg during a visit in the area by Booysendal officials.Photo:Felix Dlangamandla/Daily MaverickThe number of actors, and the roles they play, on this turbulent stage is bewildering.
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