Messages of hope

Lessons from Marikana: SA back from the brink and looking to the future

I am pleased that we have once again been able to host the Annual Marikana Memorial Lecture, and that again we have a range of remarkable speakers.

Our thanks go firstly to Archbishop Makgoba, who is the Patron of the Marikana Renewal Process, and who has provided so much guidance and support over the years. Thank you, Archbishop, I’m most grateful.

We are grateful too to the community voices that you have just heard. The creation of shared value is something that I am passionate about, but shared value cannot only be shared in its outcomes but needs to be co-created. And, for that, you need willing partners.

Our keynote speaker today, Andile Sangqu, is known to many in his current role as Chair of Transnet. Andile, you never shy away from tough positions, and we as an industry and a nation are grateful for the problem-solving approach you always take.

I have known Andile for many years, and most particularly when he was a notable and fearless fellow office bearer of the Minerals Council. I have no doubt that Andile’s address today will be thoughtful and insightful, guided by his strong values-based approach to life. We are very pleased that he will be sharing with us some learning from his PhD thesis, which I understand is currently under review.

In preparing for my address today, I reflected on where we are today as a country versus where we were 12 years ago, or even a year ago. And I thought about what lessons we have learned during the Marikana Renewal process that might be apposite for others and our country as a whole.

What we have seen in South Africa in the past few months is remarkable. In a move that has seen supporters vindicated and detractors perplexed, South Africa has once again transitioned from a free and fair election to a representative Government of National Unity.

No doubt there will be challenges as ideologies clash and, yes, there is a cost to a bloated cabinet. But, nonetheless, the GNU has given renewed hope and some comfort to citizens, partners and investors.

Still, to use an old adage – the proof in the pudding is in the eating, and citizens and the global stage will be watching for the good intentions to be turned into reality.

While it may be bold to do so, I want to reflect on how we – as Sibanye-Stillwater – have learned lessons from the divisive aftermath that we found ourselves in when we acquired Lonmin’s troubled assets in the wake of the tragedy at Marikana and how that may apply to the GNU.

The principles underlying our approach at Marikana are deceptively simple: Honour, Engage, and Create.

What this means in practice is that we;

• have needed to face our collective past – good and bad, even though we might have felt that we had not caused it;
• we needed to engage meaningfully with a broad range of stakeholders on an equal footing;
• and more than any other aspect, we needed to create a future that is different and worth looking forward to.

Just as we, as business, have had to take a major step forward to re-establish trust, so too the GNU needs to act in the national interest to alleviate poverty and inequality. And the only way to do it is through economic growth.

Without growth, nothing is sustainable. Let’s start though with Honour.

As a company and an industry we had to reflect on what transpired at Marikana, we had to do so respectfully, and redress harm. Lives lost could not be brought back. But taking responsibility for ensuring that the widows of those who died at Marikana have homes; that at least a family member had a job, and that dependents had access to education was something we could do and have done.

So too, the GNU needs to acknowledge past mismanagement and corruption, it needs to bring to justice wrong-doers, and it needs to set aside petty party politics and point-scoring. We need to be honest as to where we are today, and we need to move forward.

As a company, we needed to set aside differences and engage. For the Marikana Renewal process, this meant engaging a third party to help support the process to give voices to the unvoiced and unheard, and it needed to gather the ‘coalition of the willing’ that I referred to above. The National Dialogue as proposed by the President is a critical step in building bridges between stakeholders and developing common goals for the GNU and the trust of civil society.

I am reminded of the Zambezi Protocol, developed under the watch of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, in a dialogue on natural resource policy in Africa in 2016. This Protocol is even more valid today than it was when it was developed in 2016 and has at its heart a pathway to chart a prosperous minerals-rich future for Africa.

As stated by President Obasanjo at the time: “Overall, a new narrative of the value of the industry to Africa is necessary. However, one defined not by conspiracy and mistrust but instead by shared dialogue, dependency and endeavor, and underpinned by a clear belief that government needs investors and vice versa.”

In a world where citizens place great trust in companies, sometimes even more so than governments, media and NGOs, it’s time for the players to come together with a collective voice and forge a common narrative.

But this needs to go beyond talk. There has increasingly been a blur between the lines of business and the state. Many would say that is not a good thing.

Others, like ourselves, would say that we need to do what we need to do for the common good. That’s the basis of stakeholder capitalism, and our intention to create share value.

The state remains under huge pressure and has often been denuded of capacity and to some extent even competency. But there is a lot of capacity and competency in business, and when the state and business get together with resolve to find solutions, problems can be dealt with efficiently.

Examples of this include our common approach to Covid and vaccination, which would never have been possible without collaboration and a common goal.

Another is the approach to renewable energy. Within a relatively short space of time, South Africa will have one of the most modern energy industries worldwide, built from the ground up.

It is true that the mother of invention is necessity and, for the mining industry, the dual challenges of an unreliable and costly electricity network and a need to decarbonise has meant the investment of close to R300 billion by the mining industry in renewable projects, the largest contributor (around 70%) to renewables infrastructure in South Africa today.

And so too, the partnership between government and business in resolving the country’s transport infrastructure crisis will, I have no doubt, yield a positive result.

South Africans delivered a clear message to our political parties in the recent national election, put your differences aside and work together to resolve the country’s problems in the national interest.

• We need a robust and long-lasting response to crime and corruption.
• We need an economy that is growing, providing jobs and a prosperous future for all South Africans, but especially for young people.
• To grow we need to create an investor- friendly environment, and we need greater consideration of the impact of foreign policy.

Without investment, South Africa’s economy cannot expand, and without expansion, we cannot create jobs.

To attract investment from both local and international companies, government needs to send a clear and consistent message backed by delivery that we are serious about transforming South Africa into a thriving economy. Thank you very much.