With the mining industry stuttering between the drawn-out Marikana Commission hearings on the one hand, and its back-to-the-wall battle on the issue of wages and strikes on the other, the Alternative Mining Indaba is poised to provide the industry with out-of-the-box thinking that could ensure a bright future for miners.

Whether the mining bosses will pay any heed to what will come out of the indaba, to be held at The Ritz Hotel, Sea Point, Cape Town from 4 to 7 February 2014, is a moot point. Past experiences suggest they will blithely ignore the deliberations that will take place.

“Indeed, the very fact that leading drivers of the Alternative Mining Indaba have once again been ignored suggests that mine bosses remain with their heads in the sand while miners desperately seek redress and an acceptance of the simple fact that they require a living wage and decent working conditions,” so says John Capel, Executive Director of the Bench Marks Foundation.

The Indaba, now in its fifth year, is convened by Bench Marks Foundation, Oxfam, Economic Justice Network and International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa and is attended by South African, African and international organisations, churches, government departments and media annually.

Among the topics to be discussed and debated upon at the Alternative Mining Indaba are

• Mining and the social burdens for women;
• Free prior informed consent;
• Social services and the obligations of state and mining capital;
• Trends in disclosure of taxes and royalties in extractive industries;
• Violation of land rights; and
• Water degradation.

Chairperson of the Bench Marks Foundation, the Rt Rev Dr Bishop Jo Seoka, says the theme of this year’s conference is “Our resources, our future, putting local people first”.

“The main objective of the four-day indaba is to provide an international platform for civil society organisations amongst others, to share experiences and to develop strategic tools which will empower the communities and miners going forward.

“We will, as we have for the past four years, take our findings and recommendations to the Mining Indaba held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

“It is our hope that this will be a watershed year for the mining industry and all stakeholder’s inputs are considered and built into plans for the sector going forward. I will not, however, hold my breath on this,” says Bishop Seoka.

Bench Marks Foundation has been at the cutting edge of research into the Corporate Social Responsibility practices in the mining sector since 2006. It published its first report on the Platinum sector in South Africa’s North West Province a year later followed by several other reports on coal, uranium, gold and diamonds in other parts of the country as well as in Zambia, Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo. For more information regarding the indaba, contact Brown Motsau on 011 832 1743 or brown@benchmarks.org.za.