Barriers to implementing a social license to operate in mining communities: A case study of peri-urban South Africa

Abstract

This article interrogates the concept of the “social licence to operate” – defined here as “community acceptance of mining” – from a community perspective. It focuses on the case of South Africa’s peri-urban areas, which are both interesting and unique due to the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy, and the impact this has on company-community relations, and on the social licence. Most people who reside in communities in peri-urban South Africa do not own land and struggled against apartheid. They continue to live marginal lives, with limited economic opportunities. These communities are not governed by traditional authorities or chiefs so defining community leadership and formulating its legitimacy is a challenge. Through an interrogation of the social licence phenomenon, using legitimacy theory as an underpinning framework, we identify several factors which impact on the community’s ability to “grant” a social licence. We conclude that if conditions relating to these factors are unfavourable, the requirements for a social licence cannot be met. We focus specifically on the “leadership legitimacy” gap within communities, and the impact that this has had on communities’ ability to influence the social licence outcome. Through an in-depth exploration of the phenomenon from the perspective of two mining communities, we introduce a new theoretical component referred to as “community legitimacy”, which better represents the reality experienced within, and amongst, communities.