[miningmx.com] – THERE are always two sides to every story. The same goes for the matter between Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and mines minister, Susan Shabangu, regarding the proposed cutting of 14 000 jobs in mines at Rustenburg – now on hold.
Up until two weeks ago, Shabangu was the mining industry’s protector and hero in the government owing to her opposition to nationalisation. But overnight she has turned into a witch following her tirade against Amplats and thinly veiled threats to cancel mining rights licenses.
This caused Anglo American’s market capitalisation to fall by R40bn and Amplats’ by R14.6bn. There was no sound reason for questioning the validity of Anglo’s mineral rights, and Shabangu’s comments were without doubt extremely irresponsible.
All that she achieved was to confirm the world’s stereotypical classification of our country that we are quickly moving to a typical African banana republic. Especially in London, where Anglo is listed and there has long been pressure on it to reduce its exposure in South Africa.
The other side of the story revolves around a question that nobody has yet been able to answer: why did Shabangu or anyone in the Government, the ANC and even in Cosatu not say a single word between 2008 and 2010 when Amplats declared no less than 25,000 workers redundant and dismissed them?
Yes, Amplats closed three mines during this period – also around Rustenburg. However, the restructuring and cutting was done completely differently than the plans announced two weeks ago by Amplats.
In the first place, there never was any announcement that Amplats was abolishing 25,000 posts. The process started with fairly generous but affordable retirement packages offered throughout the group. The offers that were accepted created space to re-deploy workers after three shafts were closed and jobs in the shafts and the surface support services were scrapped.
The next step – after the relevant shafts were identified – was to discuss the job cuts with the unions, before any decisions were made. At the same time there were in-depth and ongoing talks with Shabangu and with the top management of her department.
In fact, there are sources in this ministry who say that Neville Nicolau, the CEO at the time, even discussed the job cuts two or three times with former President Kgalema Motlanthe and with President Jacob Zuma to make sure that the reasons for them were properly explained.
At her news conference after the latest restructuring, Shabangu said it was a huge problem for the country as a whole when 14,000 workers were going to lose their jobs. In a developing country with a measured unemployment rate of 25% and an estimated actual unemployment rate of around 50%, no one could disagree with her about this.
These figures are among the highest in the world, and a CEO who has 14,000 peoples’ jobs declared redundant in our country would have to motivate this properly and at a high level to the government before he announces it publicly.
There are several indications that Amplats did not do so.
Shabangu said there was a meeting last year in September with Cynthia Carroll, Anglo’s CEO and chairman of Amplats. Carroll told Shabangu at the time that restructuring was being considered.
“It wasn’t news to us. The whole year they talked about the challenges facing the platinum sector – and other producers too. At our last meeting we agreed that they would submit a plan to me,’ Shabangu said.
Well, on the Thursday (January 10) before the announcement, Amplats made an appointment with Shabangu for the same day that the announcement would be made. However, the announcement was made before the meeting, and it doesn’t look as if Amplats spoke to Shabangu on the day of the announcement.
A public announcement was therefore made about a matter of national interest, but the minister concerned would only be informed after the announcement. That sounds like looking for trouble. And it makes one wonder whether Carroll really had such good relations with the government during her term of office as she is often given credit for.
This naturally allowed Shabangu the opportunity to give a clear message to the two new CEOs at Anglo American and Amplats, Mark Cutifani and Griffith at Amplats respectively, that she is the regulator of the mines in South Africa, that she has much more experience in her job than they have and that they are expected to act accordingly.
Perhaps Cutifani and Griffith need such a message. But South Africa did not need it to be delivered at such high cost.
