Golden Expectations: Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance in South Africa's Mining Industry

Abstract

South Africa has the strictest corporate social responsibility (CSR) legislation in Africa, requiring mining firms to comply with stringent requirements in order to secure and retain their mining licenses. This presentation explores how firms have responded to the complex network of governance initiatives that exist to encourage mining firms to engage with communities through CSR. However, mining companies operating in South Africa face three distinct challenges. The rise of a second mining union has caused unrest among mine workers; second, South African gold and platinum mines face low mine life expectancies; third, the commodity slump has left mining companies hurting with razor-thin profit margins and diminished capital expenditure opportunities. Yet despite these three challenges, firms continue to operate in the South African sphere and moreover, match and often exceed the CSR obligations demanded by the state to redress the inequalities of apartheid. This is a scholarly and policy-oriented puzzle, for if one imagines a corporation to be a rational, profit-seeking entity, then it would be natural for the company to meet the CSR legislation in order to retain their license to operate in South Africa, but it is unexpected that a firm would exceed it. Understanding this phenomenon forms the crux of this investigation and will facilitate a stronger understanding of how mining firms operating in South Africa have responded to the legislated CSR norms and the effect that they have had on both their governance strategies and their engagement/identities with the state and civil society. The presentation will also include the results of my interviews with stakeholders undertaken in South Africa between January and February 2016.