Platinum promises have lost their shine

This year it will be five years since the massacre at Marikana and three years since the five-month platinum industry strike and many mineworkers are still far from owning homes or living in decent accommodation.

Some mining companies have failed to keep their promises - made many years ago - to provide housing. They have cited the downturn of the commodity cycle, strikes that crippled them or the indebtedness of mineworkers.

With this persistent problem and the apparent inability of mining companies to solve it, it has been suggested that quality rental stock for mineworkers is a better solution.

John Capel, executive director of the Bench Marks Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that monitors corporate social responsibility in South Africa, said the reason many miners in the platinum belt were still living in shacks in squalid conditions, with a lack of water, electricity and proper sewerage, was that when companies said they were going to build houses, what they meant was they would facilitate loans between banks and workers - to secure bonds on houses.

story_article_left1

He said this was a problem for mineworkers because they were never consulted on whether they wanted to buy a house. Workers also had concerns about what would happen if they were retrenched and unable to repay the bank loan.

Capel said workers lacked the financial literacy required to understand home ownership or how the repayments on a mortgage worked.

"What we have been saying is that they [mining companies] should build rental stock accommodation; it should be subsidised and it should be revolving stock that can be passed on when other workers go. I know it is being considered," Capel said, although he did not know how long it would take to be implemented.

Anglo American Platinum, which said in 2011 that it would build 20,000 houses by 2018, has revised this number down to 4,295, and has built only 735.

Amplats said it had not met its target because the company cut its workforce from 87,000 in 2011 to 29,000 this year, employees were in debt which made it difficult for them to secure a bond, and municipal provision of bulk infrastructure and services to support stands was still needed.

Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said the company had programmes assisting employees to reduce their levels of debt, which had saved them more than R28-million in debt instalments to date. She said that in 2015, about seven previously indebted employees became homeowners in the Northam housing project.

"We continue to explore various options to support and encourage our employee home ownership strategy."

Amplats said the company was working on six housing projects to meet the promised 4,295 houses .

Sithole said the houses had varying delivery times. Construction on some would start as early as next month.

Lonmin, which in 2006 said it was going to build 5,500 houses by 2011, has built only three template houses from which mineworkers were supposed to choose the design of the house they wanted.

Last month, Lonmin CEO Ben Magara said the company was working with the Department of Mineral Resources to devise a new plan that would meet housing requirements. He could not say when the plan would be finalised. The company was still consulting employees and unions about the type of accommodation they wanted.

He said from the last research the company did, about 75% of its workers said they preferred rental accommodation but they were yet to confirm that again.

Of the 21,000 employees at Lonmin, 11,500 are stil without decent accommodation.

Implats met its target to build 1,500 mortgaged houses by 2007. It has set new targets, to have half its mine workforce living in formal housing with their families and for all company employees to be in decent accommodation within a reasonable distance from work by 2020.

block_quotes_start We are tightening those belts. Moving forwards, people should expect a higher level of accountability block_quotes_end

Company spokesman Johan Theron said suitable home ownership and rental accommodation options were equally important in addressing the accommodation challenges faced by employees.

He said that employee indebtedness affected both home ownership and rental options and that job security concerns were not necessarily a major impediment when employees considered the company's home ownership options.

"Almost without exception, employees who have taken advantage of our home ownership scheme will be able to sell these homes on into the open market at a profit if they choose to do so, or are unfortunately compelled to do so as a result of other reasons," Theron said.

Royal Bafokeng Platinum, which in 2011 said it would build 3,100 houses, said it was in phase two of the project. In phase one, 422 houses were built.

Company spokesman Mpueleng Pooe said that despite the financial challenges mineworkers had to overcome to own a home, company research showed that they wanted to become homeowners. The company had a model in place to help raise funds to assist workers to buy homes.

Mamokgethi Molopyane, a mining and labour analyst at Creative Voodoo Consulting, said she did not think rental accommodation was a solution. "Mineworkers deserve houses, and I think the focus should be not in the area they work but their home town. Why can't companies build them houses there? Knowing some will retire early due to lung disease and their families are left without a house," she said.

story_article_right2

Joseph Mathunjwa, president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, said a depressed platinum industry should not be an excuse for companies to dodge their social responsibilities. Instead, they spent money on poor investments.

He said that none of the flats built for mineworkers so far had recreational facilities for children, nursery schools, or nearby clinics for emergencies. The flats were just "upgraded hostels".

He said that if people rented accommodation then transport should be arranged to move workers from work to their homes in other provinces because that was where they had built their houses. "Who will want to buy a house in Rustenburg when they already have a house in KwaZulu-Natal, for example?" Mathunjwa asked.

Will there be repercussions for companies that do not meet their targets?

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said a lot had been done in terms of monitoring mining companies and making sure that they stuck to targets, but he was not happy with the results so far.

He said the department was using persuasion to push companies to speed up meeting their targets. If persuasion failed, there would be consequences, he said, without elaborating.

"We also blame ourselves because we did not act timeously," Zwane said.

"We are tightening those belts. Moving forwards, people should expect a higher level of accountability."

The reviewed Mining Charter would be released by the end of the first quarter and changes would include the department being specific on what it expected from mining companies, the minister said.

 mtonganal@sundaytimes.co.za