Mining Indaba’s focus on wooing investors is deeply flawed
The belief that mining is a positive force for development in SA is completely at odds with the reality of deepening poverty and growing inequality
At the Mining Indaba unfolding in Cape Town, government has been focused on wooing investors to ramp up the rate of mineral exploitation in the country in the belief that merely bringing in investment, without ensuring ethical, economic, political and socially just processes will somehow not end up like the last 25 years, where the rising anger at local level has been proportionate to the rise in inequality. In a new report, in which Action Aid SA conducted door-to-door surveys in communities affected by mining to assess the social, economic and political conditions caused by mining, we have found that the lived experiences of communities affected by mining do not coincide with the rhetorical and generic claims by government and corporations that mining has been a positive force for development in SA. The nature of the unequal way that benefits have accrued to stakeholders of the sector have arguably outweighed the generic contribution that mining has played in the development of th...
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