Why are SLPs and SLP compliance necessary?

It becomes very apparent how important SLP compliance is when considering the nature of the impact that mining operations have on the communities in which they operate. Throughout history and all over the world, mining towns have been established where there was no prior human settlement due to a mine’s operations. This is no less true in South Africa. When a mine closes, this results in a direct loss of jobs for mineworkers and opportunities for the broader community for those living in a mining town. When a mine begins operating in an established community, that community often becomes dependent on the mine’s operations for their continuing socioeconomic growth and development. When SLP compliance is in place and followed, intentional actions are undertaken to ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of communities impacted by mining.

Not only are those employed directly by the mine at risk when a mine closes, but many secondary industries that develop in a mining town are also very vulnerable to any changes to the mine’s productivity. Examples of such secondary employment include any jobs relating to supply chains, or the employment offered by services that would be built specifically to cater for the needs of those employed directly by the mine. If the mine should close, those working in these service industries are also likely to see their own jobs cease to exist as well.

SLP compliance seeks to ensure that gainful employment is still available to mine affected communities, even beyond the life cycle of the mine. Through upskilling and livelihoods development programmes, a vibrant secondary economy can be established which long outlasts the life of mine.

SLP compliance and historic inequality in the industry

It is a sad reality, but there are all too many historical examples of mines, or the industry as a whole, not adhering to the high standards of safety and employee health that is expected today. Poor living and working conditions were often the norm, and unsafe working conditions were often to be expected. SLP compliance also aims to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated, but that the safety and dignity of mine workers is guarded, thus ensuring the best possible quality of employment for mine workers into the future.

There is also a strong drive to ensure employment equity and transformation in mining. The government is specifically focused on ensuring that historically disadvantaged persons (black, Indian, and coloured South Africans) as well as women are increasingly represented at higher management levels of the mining industry.

SLP compliance is a legal obligation throughout the lifetime of operations

Once an SLP is submitted and approved, and the mining rights are awarded, the SLP becomes a legally binding document. To maintain the mineral rights, the objective laid out by the SLP must be implemented. SLPs must also be reviewed and resubmitted every 5 years, for the duration of the life of mine. When done properly, SLP implementation will lead to the communities surrounding the mining operation being empowered, and tangible socio-economic benefits will be seen by community members and other beneficiary stakeholders. Effective implementation of all the elements of the SLP is paramount in realising the original aims of the legislation.

What does SLP compliance aim to do?

SLPs aim to see that petroleum and mineral resources are developed, and economic growth is promoted in South Africa. This growth and development cannot be at the expense of workers or communities in which the mining operations function.

To this end, SLPs fall within the general aim to advance the welfare of all South Africans, economically and socially. SLP compliance thus ensures that those holding the rights to mine make lasting contributions to the economic and social development of the areas in which they function, as well as the regions from which most of their workforce are sourced and originate from (also known as Labour Sending Areas).

Where SLP compliance is attained and adhered to, it will have lasting benefits on the communities that rely on the mining concern, even if the mining operation downscales during its operational lifetime, and even after the project comes to a close.

Adding real value to communities

When SLP compliance is earned and implemented, it will produce real benefits to the communities it aims to develop and uplift. These can be seen in the upgrading of infrastructure in the area of operation. Improving schools, buildings and roads would mean benefits to the community for years after the operations have come to close. Providing water, housing and sanitation in the region is another way that SLP compliance is applied in practical terms for the community members to also benefit from the mining operations.

Other aspects that SLP compliance can address is training of community members in various career paths, and programmes that equip the people with other useful skills, such as being taught to cultivate their own food as well as other trades, like plumbing, electrical skills, or carpentry work.

Lastly, the SLP aims to eradicate poverty and support community members to enter into meaningful socioeconomic activity which is not dependent on the mining industry. Various interventions, like livelihood development projects, can be implemented in mine host communities to further establish socioeconomic development.

SLP compliance benefits the community even after the mine no longer operates

SLP compliance is expected beyond the lifetime of a mine, since its responsibilities as outlined in the SLP do not terminate when the mine closes. Not only is the aim to see the above types of community benefits tangibly produced by the end of the mine’s life cycle, but the land where the mining has taken place must be rehabilitated so that it can be utilised for agricultural purposes by the communities that remain after the mine closes. All SLPs stipulate that funds need to be put aside throughout the lifetime of the mining project to deal with the future closure of the mine. SLP compliance ensures that these measures are implemented.

There must also be a clear five-year closure process in place in order to ensure that the negative socio-economic effects of closure are mitigated. SLP compliance will see to it that the rehabilitation of the area is enforced, and that the mine’s workers have been both upskilled (through Human Resources Development programmes) and retrained (through Portable Skills programmes), so that they can find employment once the mine has ceased its operations.

One of the biggest challenges

One of the largest obstacles to effective SLP compliance is when an SLP is developed that is not relevant to the community that it seeks to serve. It is not uncommon for employees and residents to feel overlooked when an SLP is being developed, leading to resentment and real or perceived feelings of not truly benefitting from the programmes that are being implemented. Even if there is a high rate of true SLP compliance, these can be the real outcomes for the people on the ground.

This is why genuine stakeholder engagement is so vital in the design and implementation of an SLP. Mining right holders are required, by law, to conduct processes of broad-based stakeholder engagement when developing a new SLP. Stakeholders that should be consulted include municipalities, traditional authorities, community leaders, as well as the broader community themselves. Organised labour should also be consulted through the Future Forum or SLP Forum structures. For more information about stakeholder engagement, as well as how Umsizi can assist with your stakeholder engagement needs, read this article.

SLP Compliance is attainable

Taking all this into account can be daunting, but SLP compliance does not have to be an insurmountable obstacle. Umsizi has successfully developed over 400 Social and Labour Plans for various clients, including multinational mining companies as well as smaller mining right holders. We have helped each of these companies attain SLP compliance, guiding them to secure the necessary rights to conduct their businesses and ensuring that their impact on their host communities is tangibly felt and reduces social risks to the operation.

Umsizi’s expert stakeholder engagement approach ensures that everyone involved in SLP compliance truly benefit from mining activities, in real and tangible ways, in each individual context that every SLP is targeting.

This is the goal of SLP compliance: ensuring that companies profit not just themselves, but also the communities and all the stakeholders involved as they operate in South Africa. SLP compliance is a positive and necessary step towards that end, and Umsizi can partner with you and your business to ensure that SLP compliance means the mining activities you undertake will uplift your host communities in the long term.

Contact us today so that we can begin the process of securing SLP compliance. To see some of the successful sustainable socio-economic solutions that we have implemented, click on this link here.

Bibliography/Further Reading:

https://www.dmr.gov.za/Portals/0/social%20and%20labour%20plan_guideline.pdf

https://www.wits.ac.za/cals/our-programmes/environmental-justice/social-and-labour-plans/

https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/research-entities/cals/documents/programmes/environment/resources/SLP%20Community%20Toolkit%202%20March%202017.pdf

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiS37v5jNH3AhUoS_EDHQXZC38QFnoECB0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mineralscouncil.org.za%2Fcomponent%2Fjdownloads%2Fsend%2F32-workshops%2F492-innovative-ways-of-thinking-in-the-slp-space&usg=AOvVaw168wdMGH4uE56nQ8YcknWa

https://www.goldfields-southdeep.co.za/our-communities/social-and-labour-plans

https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/608/184255.html

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/mining-towns

https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/ejc-vp_stock_v11_n10_a6

What does it mean to have a “Broad-Based Strategy”?

There is some confusion around the meaning of the term “broad-based”. If you Google “broad-based strategies” and you’ll find an article or two about business plans. They suggest that your business plan must encompass many aspects to be effective. You need a broad outlook to produce a successful business.  There’s even an article calling for a broad-based strategy to get our national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, on track. You’ll get many hits discussing Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). Adding “South Africa” to the search brings up even more of these links.

South Africa Needs Broad-Based Strategies

At Umsizi when we talk about broad-based strategies, we have something more definite in mind. Our goal is to see as many people impacted as possible in our projects. They must be broad-based in this sense. We don’t want to uplift and empower just a few people, but many. This country cannot afford to only see a couple of dozen poor communities helped. We need to see poverty eradication on a national scale. Already our projects have had a wide-spread impact into tens of thousands of households.

This might begin on a small scale, but the plans have to have broad-based scope over the long term. Short-term solutions have to lead to long-term resolutions. Otherwise, it’s only putting a plaster over a life-threatening injury.

Our strategies are also broad-based in focus. Economics, issues of self-worth and social concerns are all intertwined. Our strategies look not just to deepen but widen their impact too. We want to impact various spheres positively. We also want to see the people of this country better within themselves, with skills. People who know they are valuable are more productive members of society.

Broad-based Livelihoods

It is no small task to uplift our poorest citizens on a mass scale. With this in view, we look to drive a community’s currency – its cash – back into itself. Rather than seeing funds that come in go back out again, we teach households to invest in themselves. We have already seen this achieved in thousands of households. Our horticulture and other business strategies are working. Currency beans to recirculate in economically-disadvantaged communities. This, in turn, uplifts entire neighbourhoods.

One Broad-based Strategy shows the merit of this approach

Our broad-based strategies’ aim is to achieve is long-term economic growth and social upliftment. Our My Food program aims to ensure that poor households can subsist in even the harshest economic climates. The initiative teaches people how to grow their own food. Often income leaves the community again with little to show for it at the end of the month. By teaching people to grow and tend their own crops their investment soon subsidises their income. If there is a lean month, the people are able to eat.

Those who learn to subsist on their own crops are also taught to market and sell excess produce. This is one way the broad-based aspect also comes into play. This is the progress for participants. At first, they stretch their income a little by growing healthy fruit and vegetables. Then they earn extra income. Friends and neighbours benefit by buying affordable nourishing food products. This is broad-based strategy in action.

Some of our other Broad-based strategies

Umsizi runs My Business training for those who have started any kind of enterprise. It is also open to those who want to start a business but don’t know how. This training aims to equip entrepreneurs with basic business skills. These include budgeting, managing time, tracking sales and expenses. This training results in profitability increasing and the businesses becoming sustainable. Via My Business, we also offer accredited Micro-MBA courses. South Africa needs more and better business people. There will be many positive long-term effects for the country.

My Future is a program which helps people to set goals to achieve their own vision for their life. The course runs over approximately four workshops in the participants’ own language. Attendees take time to learn about themselves. It then moves on to practical steps to achieve what they believe they can and desire to accomplish.

It’s a long road, but these broad-based strategies will uplift the poor

With these and other initiatives, we are seeing tremendous positive results. The poor are being equipped to feed themselves. They are also learning to take practical steps to run profitable businesses. Communities benefit when money is invested back into the neighbourhoods. These are some of the positive results of effective broad-based strategies.

Today is about celebrating and recognizing those of you who embraced the Broad Based Livelihoods Program and I would like to thank everybody for making time to be here today. We are here today to recognise a journey which began back in 2015, a journey which has touched the lives of over three hundred households in Nyakallong and Kutlwanong, a journey which Taung Gold is very proud to be involved in. Almost one thousand people have gained additional life-skills from the program, empowering them to advance their well-being. Our intention with BBL was to enable you to make a difference for yourselves, to reduce dependency on others and to set you on a path to being economically self-sufficient and sustainable. I am truly impressed by the energy and determination shown by you and I encourage you to continue with this energy and determination to further succeed. We will continue to assist where we can.

In the next few years, Taung Gold intends to develop a new project, the Jeanette Gold Mine, just to the East of where we are standing. Our journey, like yours over the past three years, is one that requires creativity and innovation to advance the Jeanette project since we acquired it from Harmony. Right up front we recognized that our local communities are very important to the success of the project and it is for this reason that we decided to initiate the Broad-Based Livelihoods Program. By necessity, creativity required us to engage with you and harness your energy and resourcefulness to create a high level of determination from all stakeholders and establish a successful partnership. 

Of course, there must be a foundation on which success can be built and, in our case, the very earth on which we are standing provided such foundation: Firstly, this earth contains one of the very reasons why Taung Gold exists; a deposit of gold which lies deep beneath our feet. Secondly, this earth also provides the opportunity for the Broad-Based Livelihoods Program, started by Taung Gold with its partners, as a sign of our commitment to sound relationships, whilst we explore, design, finance and build a new gold mine.

Of course, the willingness of the community to accept us and work with us has been critical to the success of the program and I really do want to thank everyone for that spirit of cooperation and support, without which we would not be here today. 

All great journeys begin with small steps and our starting point for the BBL program was to focus on growing food, a basic need that we all have. As we saw the commitment of the participants in the program this then progressed to education and assistance with small business principles. The program has been open to all interested people from the local communities so that as many people as possible could participate. Of course, we welcome more participation moving forward. This education and training imparts practical knowledge and business skills into the minds and souls of those who chose to “give it a go” and the results are clear for all to see. All of the participants in the program have demonstrated energy and determination to succeed and many of you have been able to establish sustainable small enterprises which are able to put food on the table.

Let me share with you some of the achievements of the Broad Based Livelihoods Program:

• Over 800 people have attended the garden training workshops and these have, in most cases, put food on the table with lots of people now eating better than before;
• Our records show that 85 households have been earning money by selling vegetables;
• Almost 100 families have built their own vegetable tunnels and some have progressed to successful businesses in vegetable farming;
• The vegetable tunnels can be seen on almost all streets in the local community. 

These achievements and the fact that there are vegetable tunnels on most streets make it obvious that the partnership between us is working and we should be proud of that. 

We are very excited about the fact that we have been able to assist you to make a difference to your own lives and to also impact positively on the lives of others in your communities. I believe that what you have been able to achieve sets a very good example for others to aspire to. You truly have set a wonderful example and I believe that you are a remarkable inspiration to society. 

I challenge you to dream of really growing your businesses, expanding your abilities further afield and developing your efforts into significant enterprises. Having taken the small and often most difficult steps to get going, I urge you think about expanding your horizons and dream big. 

A little later we will be recognizing local business owners who have completed the learning workshops on Business Tools for Profitability and they will each be receiving certificates of recognition. This training has enabled them to be able to look at their businesses and identify areas for improvement and to reduce costs, increasing profitability. Some of these people have even started to train their neighbours and help them to get going as well. That really is special and deserving of recognition. 

Just take a moment and think about your successes. Think about your dreams and aspirations and how to make them happen.

Many of these businesses are staring to get together and are creating their own Business Chamber to represent them and this will make them and the community much stronger. Unity will enable you to develop a stronger voice and to advance your collective interests so I encourage you to keep up these efforts and to work together towards your common interests in developing the local economy.

The Career Build Program has attracted much interest from school learners and this will soon be followed by the My Future Program which will include any person who wishes to plan a future and start taking steps to make that future a reality.

A couple of months ago we celebrated what would have been the 100th birthday of a person who was and remains an inspiration to all of us, former President Nelson Mandela. Madiba said that “a winner is a dreamer who never gives up”. He certainly knew the true meaning of those words. I say to you,  you will face challenges, but remember those words and never lose sight of and never give up on your dreams. I encourage you to reflect on your success to date but to build on that by developing your dreams through determination and commitment. 

Thank you for your time. I wish you all of the best with your efforts and look forward to returning soon to celebrate further successes.