TOP executives at South Africa’s mining companies may at last be “finding their collective backbone” — as an investor once pointedly suggested they do — judging by recent public statements by Sibanye Gold CEO Neal Froneman and Northam Platinum CEO Glyn Lewis.
Mr Lewis got stuck into the government, citing “dysfunctional legislation” and an “overregulated environment”. Mr Froneman raised the possibility of clashes over the Mining Charter ending up in the Constitutional Court.
Such comments stand out because they are so unusual. Over the past five years or so only two mining executives spring to mind as having been prepared to openly challenge government utterances “on the record”. First was former Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll, who pulled no punches in her opposition to nationalisation proposals being bandied about.
New Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani followed suit. Addressing a dinner at last year’s mining lekgotla, he commented: “We must remove uncertainty and that means the state must stop threatening ownership.”
The norm for mining executives has been to keep quiet despite repeated provocation from government ministers and bureaucrats — some of it blatantly incorrect.
A classic example was the attack launched on De Beers in May 2005 by then deputy mines minister Lulu Xingwana, who chastised the group for daring to appoint a white CEO and described the De Beers board as “lily white”. There were three black directors on the De Beers board at the time — two from Botswana and one from Namibia. De Beers, typically, declined to comment.
Such supine responses stand in sharp contrast to the public furore that erupted in Australia over the minerals resource rent tax. Australia’s mining executives — led by then BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers (a South African) — told the “pollies” exactly where to get off with their proposed legislation. That raises an obvious question — is there one kind of democracy in Australia and another in South Africa?
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