EDITORIAL: Gwede Mantashe’s poor lack of insight
Name-calling and attacking Implats, which has its back against the wall, shows a striking lack of empathy for struggling companies
Impala Platinum stands accused by the Department of Mineral Resources and minister Gwede Mantashe of "arrogance" in its company-saving announcement of shutting or selling five shafts and cutting 13,000 jobs over the next two years. Mantashe echoed then-mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu’s equally provocative and charged attack on Anglo American Platinum in 2013 when it unveiled plans to cut 14,000 jobs, as well as close and sell shafts at its Rustenburg mines. Shabangu too used the word "arrogance" and went a step further to threaten the company and parent Anglo American with their mining licences in SA. Name-calling and attacking a company with its back against the wall after being brought into the decision and shown how dismal the situation has become shows a striking lack of empathy for companies going through incredibly difficult decisions, a naked lack of understanding of basic business and a desire to put cheap politics ahead of robust, honest talks about how desperate ...
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