Special Hearings — Business Hearings — 1997-11-13

BOBBY GODSELL NICK SEGAL ADRIAN DU PLESSIS: Mr Chairperson, Commissioners, I certainly in respect to your request don't propose to read our submission to the Commission and in the interest of leading into the discussion as soon as possible, I propose to keep my opening remarks extremely short.
 I simply would like to make one preparatory remark and two observations regarding our submission.  By way of preparatory remarks, I would like to present to the Commission the Mining Industry principally as a creator of wealth in South Africa.
 Over the last century the Mining Industry has been the largest producer of gold, platinum and many other minerals in the world.  It is a major engine of growth, not only in its multiplying effects running into all walks of commerce and industry in South Africa, but also as an employer.
 The Mining Industry in the reviewed period employed more than 600 000 people per annum and supported million more dependents.  The Mining Industry in our view has contributed significantly to per capita GDP growth in South Africa and in Southern Africa and has yielded real social and economic benefits to the country as a whole.
 This is a role that the industry is determined to play well into the future.  It is in this light that I'd like to make two sets of observations.  Firstly, the history of the Mining Industry cannot be told, since 1960.
 Its story begins into the nineteenth century.  Mining was South Africa's first modern and was crucially shaped by the colonial and by the racial hierarchy of the day.  Migrant labour, job reservation, wage distribution, housing, health care and other conditions of service were racially described.
 The racial organisation of work was discriminatory by any account.  Its key features were importantly cast prior to 1960 and was subsequently reinforced by further legislation.  
 This legacy has long served to define the options and opportunities that are open to the Mining Industry today.  Black employees' rights and expectations were certainly denied.  Families were adversely effected.  Community development normally associated with the process of modernisation, was distorted.
 The rational organisation of work was frustrated.  This legacy is still evident today.  It has left a deep trail of human loss, of hardship and of suffering which has to be addressed and in the Mining Industry's view can never be repeated.
 The second observation that the industry would like to make, is that it has pursued opportunities to escape this legacy wherever they have arisen.
 Clearly there are real limitations on what has been possible.  The weight of a racially defined system has created a body of relationships, arrangements and dependencies which are not easily broken.
 Opportunities for restructuring have had to be grasped wherever circumstances have permitted.  I would like to turn in this regard briefly to the areas covered in our submission.
 In respect of race, the industry has continually fought around the table and in the courts and dare I say in the street (indistinct) in 1922 against job reservation.  Job reservation not only distorted job structures in the Mining Industry, but also had the perverse of racially describing wage distribution.
 Battles which started at the turn of the century, were only finally concluded with the repeal of the coarse scheduled person provision in the mines and works act in 1986.  This repeal effectively opened the last set of mining occupations to all races and today half of miners and over 30 percent of artisans are Black.
 In 1991 the Chamber agreed a commitment with the national union of mine workers to a set of universally accepted principles of non-racialism and undertook to eliminate discrimination wherever it existed in terms of procedures agreed between ourselves.
 In respect of wages, the real earnings of unskilled and semi-skilled Black workers in the industry were increased five fold over the review period all be it of a low base.
 The differential between White skilled and Black unskilled wages was also decreased during the review period from 17 to one to approximately four and a half to one.
 This amounted to a significant redistribution of wage income, all be it limited by real constraints on gross wageable costs and ruling product prices.
 This limitation is most laterally addressed in a wage and productivity agreement with the national union of mine workers that permits further significant wage improvements in line with operational performance.
 The legacy of migrant labour has possibly most decisively set the parameters of industry employment practise.  This has been aggravated by the origins of migrant labour in a set of racial laws that cohesively regulated the movement of labour.
 In the review period progress has been made in replacing short term or periodic employment contracts with long term employment relationships.  Herein lies an important policy distinction for the Mining Industry.  The emphatic rejection of a cohesive system of migrant labour should not in future prohibit a voluntary system of labour migration of persons from South and Southern African wishing to pursue careers on the mines.
 A fair and just system will permit a wider range of choices for every migrant miner.  The choices open to miners in the past have admittedly been severely limited.
 For much of the century labour relations was racially defined, denying Blacks equal rights to Whites and effectively prohibiting free trade unionism.
 This led inter alia to frequent and violent conflicts on the mines that had the effect of fracturing employment relationships and this too left a deep legacy and gave birth to a long tradition of struggle.
 The development of industrial relations systems with representative trade unions in the 1980's, opened new opportunities for engagement between employers and employees in the industry.
 Already in this regard a body of agreement has emerged that has defined new organisational principles that hold the promise of a more rational and effective work place order that can transcend traditional enmities.
 Key features of a racially defined health and safety system are importantly addressed in the passing of the mine's health and safety act in 1996.  This act was jointly negotiated between employers, labour and Government and important steps have been taken in the implementation of the legislation and in the improvement of the safety record in the Mining Industry generally.
 It is our view that this foundation needs to be actively and fully further developed.  
 In conclusion then, Mr Chair and Commissioners, the culture of race and evident discrimination in the Mining Industry has been the cause of great human harm, loss and suffering.  The chamber should have done more.  We should have pushed harder and faster to break the systems of racial classification that existed at the time and the discriminatory practises that were evident.
 The chamber deeply regrets that the opportunity lost has uniquely disadvantaged Black employees and has not served the industry well, generally.
 We have no doubt that the industry today would be better placed to compete in international product, capital and labour markets, had the opportunities been seized earlier to recast our structure - to recast or restructure the industry in completely different terms.
 The challenge facing the chamber today is to repair or address this legacy.  This requires particular attention to the concerns for better jobs, accelerated training and skills development, progressive career advancement and active steps to address the migrant labour and health and safety recommendations set out in the Leon and Myburgh Commission Reports which have been fully supported and accepted by the chamber.
 Addressing these legacies can be reconciled with the future growth of the industry and in our view, is absolutely essential to secure future competitiveness for the mines.
 Careful balances will obviously need to be found that repair the past while having full regard to the pressing constraints of the future on the Mining Industry.  The presence of mature bargaining partners in the industry makes this possible to define a better future for all which will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
 Thank you, Mr Chair.