Messages of hope

You have certainly given us plenty to reflect on as we continue the work of co-creation through building relationships at Marikana.

I would also like to thank Archbishop Makgoba. As always, your ongoing guidance and wisdom continue to shape our journey.

It is an honour, this year, to welcome Judge Ian Farlam, who chaired the Marikana Commission of Inquiry, thank you for your reflections today.

Thank you, too, to all those who made themselves available to contribute to the reflections video we viewed earlier. Hearing your individual truths was deeply moving. Should you like to share it with others who were not here today, it is available on the Sibanye-Stillwater website.

And thank you, Neal, for your leadership over the past six years since Sibanye-Stillwater took over responsibility for addressing the Marikana legacy. More than six years, in fact. It is not widely known that even before the acquisition of Lonmin was finalised, Neal took the time to meet with the widows. He listened. And it was through their openness and willingness to engage that he saw a path forward – not just for a transaction, but for healing.

It took real moral courage and vision to take on Marikana – not just the operations, but the history, the heartbreak and the responsibility to make things right. Since then, together with the participation of all our stakeholders, we have seen, I believe, some real progress towards building a community that stands tall. When Neal leaves his position at Sibanye-Stillwater later this year, he leaves behind a profound Marikana legacy – and I commit to taking up that responsibility with the deepest respect.

Over the last couple of months, I have done a great deal of thinking about the way forward. We have a responsibility to continue modelling our co-creation process on the best South African traditions of dialogue, not just talking, of true engagement. It is this tradition, this engagement that helped us start building our country, of which I am immensely proud, during the Codesa years of the early 1990s.

The tragedy of Marikana in 2012 was one of the signals that those traditions were no longer being effectively practised. There had been other signals too. Marikana was not just a moment of rupture – it was a symptom of deeper fractures in our society.

This is why Sibanye-Stillwater embarked on a sincere endeavour through the Letsema engagement process to understand the hardship faced by Marikana communities. To internalise the deep frustration and desperation felt by those living in Marikana and how this played a role in the tragic events. Through genuine, open dialogue, we sought to understand each other’s needs and challenges, and to work together on overcoming them. A process not driven by the company but rather by all stakeholders, for a common purpose, something I dare say our country so desperately needs.

Through this process, together, we found a pathway to build opportunities for communities, and to identify and invest in much-needed infrastructure and resources.

We have adopted a similar approach at all our operations to ensure all our host communities are heard. As we move forward, we need to understand and embrace that communities themselves are defined by multiple different stakeholders, all of whom have legitimacy and we need to continue to strive to be inclusive in our engagements, for everybody’s voice to be truly heard.

The Marikana Renewal programme has valuable lessons for the whole mining industry and the country at large. Part of any discussion needs to recognise and acknowledge the wrongs of the past and the role we have all played. While much has changed, we need to acknowledge that our industry was built off the back of desperate migrant labour, a history that devastated families and communities, and we still bear the scars today. To truly achieve our third pillar of our Marikana renewal programme of “create” to create a new future, we must acknowledge and see these scars, to allow for healing, to allow for trust. Communities are not merely beneficiaries; they are essential partners in ensuring that mining operations, and the benefits we create together, outlast the life of mine.

It is no longer sufficient that a mining company simply focuses on optimally extracting resources. Today, as a modern mining company, our work is about producing minerals in a way that creates value for stakeholders without repeating the harms of the past. An ethos we have adopted as a company since our beginnings in 2013, and we are committed to continuously improve and deliver this vision. Responsibly conducted mining has the unique potential to introduce economic activity into otherwise remote areas. It can become an anchor of local development, a springboard for shared prosperity. Of course we need to be mindful, though positive outcomes are, in some cases, years in the making and like all industries, there are good and difficult times to weather. But mining is a long-term, capital-intensive industry and we can leverage these factors to create sustainable local upliftment, while recognising that it is complex and time- consuming to yield tangible results.

Confronting head-on the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality is an absolute necessity in our society and country that requires concerted commitment from all stakeholders. We are all going to have to give, to receive and I can promise you Sibanye- Stillwater is committed to this, but we cannot do it alone. We need collaboration with our communities, we need our government to fulfil its responsibilities to create an enabling environment for us to thrive, together, and we need morally driven leaders to stand up and do the right things.

Letsema has shown us what is possible when stakeholders come together with shared intent and mutual respect.

The legacy of Marikana has been built on the three pillars of honour, engage and create. We have made significant progress, but now we must look ahead to how we will continue to build on the learnings from the past through ongoing engagement and commitment to create a new future.

Let us use this moment – not just to talk, but to act – with unity, humility, respect and purpose.

I thank you.