Business the Zuma Way

COSATU and NUM are upset about Zuma hijacking the South African Mining industry but the truth is that there is not a damn thing they can do about it. The DMR works for Zuma and the Guptas and consequently the new rulers, unlike the Rand Barons who only had economic power, also have the political power and the right to kill.

Conducting negotiations over mineral rights is not anymore conducted in boardrooms between the prospective partners. Holders of Mineral Rights, wanting to discuss commercial terms must be prepared to do it in dusty township stadiums with the Guptas, a Zuma family member (Duduzane), Lazarus Zim accompanied by heavily armed police, bodyguards and a senior official of the Department of Mineral Resources.  The heat the holder of such a Mineral Right feels during such negotiations has very little to do with the ferocity of the sun…the heat they feel will be present even on a cold and cloudy day.

The DMR do not take steps when Zuma mines pollute our water resources. Aurora, a mine belonging to a Zuma and a Mandela, has been pumping poisonous acid water into our water resources for over a year with the knowledge of the department and they will continue to do so but in future it will be paid for by the citizen.

Employees are shot and killed at Aurora mines and the DMR turns a blind eye. A woman was killed in a mine accident in December 2009, something that will cause a 48 hour or longer stoppage on any other mine with permission to continue normally only given after an in loco inspection. The mine in question was given permission to continue operations without as much as an in loco inspection by an Inspector of Mines.

Employees of Aurora cannot be legally employed by other mines since they do not have medical exit certificates from their previous employer, Aurora, a legal requirement for reemployment. The DMR tells prospective employers to employ these people with a note on their medical files (circumventing the law) yet the DMR won’t issue this instruction/permission in writing. Should the decision of an employer to employ a person based on this flimsy exemption backfires on the prospective employer,  the DMR will wash its hands and the errant employer will become liable under the law for helping the Zuma rejects.

The DMR are openly promoting the interests of Zuma and his Gupta partners, presenting them, Indians arriving in SA in the 1993, as suitable BEE entities certain to smooth the path to the acquisition of prospecting permits and Mining rights. Government sponsored fronting, or perhaps a Zuma fronting for the Guptas? Ironically Shabangu is the minister who, less than a year ago, took white mine bosses to task accusing them of fronting.

The bias of the DMR has been clearly illustrated in the Sishen affair, where not only Anglo American was short shifted, but also a BEE company connected to Baleke Mbete and Tokyo Sexwale.

Jacob Zuma’s Leaking Begging Bowl

Tom Albanese, CEO of Rio Tinto, said that said the company was “underinvested” in Africa. This hot on the heels of the announcement recently that Rio Tinto sold a large part of their stake in Palabora Mining and a large proportion of their prospecting and mineral rights. 

Rio Tinto does not stand alone. In the past week Xstrata announced a huge expansion project in Mauritania. A company holding some of the best ferrochrome assets in the world right here in South Africa find Mauritania less risky than South Africa? Surely something is wrong?  

The Xstrata decision is better understood when we read that Mark Bristow, South African CEO of Randgold Resources, prefers to invest in a DRC project rather than a South African project. If that is not enough, Harmony Gold announced that a project to sink a new shaft has been canned. 

Why this nonsensical decisions? I’ll tell you why;

In SA your mineral rights could be stolen by the family and close connections of the President – Sishen, ICT (Zuma, Gupta) 

In SA the labour is expensive and uncompetitive, their laziness being insttutionalised by government and legislation 

In SA management are vilified and threatened.

In SA, what is not stolen by the connected has to handed over to connected politicians in BEE deals 

In SA there are no skills, the skilled manager’s work abroad for the big mining houses 

It is because of this that we have fly-by-nights such as Khulubuse Zuma and Kodwa Mandela starting up companies like Aurora Mining; companies designed to destroy value whilst filling the pockets of their principals with money from “investors” with dark agendas. 

It is no wonder then that people with “Ubuntu integrity” like Lazarus Zim – Chairman of Kumba and closely connected with the crowd who effectively stole the Sishen Mineral Rights from Kumba – the failed Tokyo Sexwale and Mzi Khumalo replaced people like Marius Kloppers (BHP), Mick Davis (Xstrata) and Jan Du Plessis (Rio Tinto) as the great South African Magnates. In the modern and transforming South African, mining magnate is understood to be someone like the crooked swindler and ANC darling, Brett Kebble. How much further shall we fall.

No wonder then that whilst the rest of Africa has to fight of Chinese investors, eager to get their grubby little hands on their mineral resources, Jacob Zuma has to make speeches in Beijing in a tone of voice one would normally associate with that coming from a beggar, urging the Chinese to invest in our resources. 

Perhaps Zuma will still learn that mining requires huge investment and investors, no matter how rich, will not invest in business that could be stolen or driven into bankruptcy by a workforce that does not know the meaning of the term, work ethic

The Great Resource Scam

We recently witnessed, without to much fanfare and hardly a whisper of gnashing teeth, one of the biggest robberies off, in Malema’s words; “the mineral resources lying below the South African soil”, belonging to the people – in a truly socialist sense – of South Africa. The resources robbed was not diamonds, or indeed platinum and gold; it was lowly iron ore – the feedstock of the ferocious Chinese and Indian industries. The robbers, ironically, was not evil white colonialists neither were the vile Apartheid era oppressors; they were not even mighty imperialist raiders from Europe and North America – no; in this case the robbers were local people; heroes conspiring with new age Moguls to relieve the people of their hard fought wealth.

In this intriguing tale of robbery and deceit a whole chunk of iron ore reserves were stolen from an unsuspecting Kumba iron ore by master of deceit Jagdish Parekh – agent of the Gupta brothers, big friends of; you guessed it; Jacob Zuma and partners. Parekh and his cohorts in Imperial Crown Trading – Kgalema Mothlanthe, Duduzane Zuma and others – invariably with the help of loyal cadres in the Department Minerals – illicitly used stolen Kumba documents to apply for the mineral rights which was conveniently allowed to lapse by another company run by modern day moguls; Accelor Mital. The chairman of the company – victim of the scam; Kumba Iron – was none other than Lazarus Zim, co-owner; with the Guptas; of a company called Afripalm.

For those not grasping it all yet; besides the shenanigans of the politicians and their appendices – Mothlanthe, Zuma and others – which is anyway expected and par for the course, we have a situation where the honourable Mr. Zim seems to be closely connected to the band of raiders – RCT and stand to gain handsomely from this latest scheme to enrich and reward the select few with the spoils of the struggle. Whilst Zim plots with the raiders, he remains the chairman – receiving a handsome fee for his efforts – of the company, KUMBA Iron, which will be irreparably harmed by the actions of its chairman and friends. Now, unless I’m mistaken, to be the chairperson of a public company requires a high level of integrity and the chairperson of such companies are expected to have the best interest of the company at heart.

This case presents a clear conflict of interest and to call Zim a man of integrity would be stretching the truth. Instead of taking the honourable route and resign as chairman, Zim, after being pushed, agreed to recuse himself from KUMBA board discussions involving the ICT issue – a very convenient arrangement. He can use that time and over a cup of coffee, can discuss ICT strategy with the Guptas, young Zuma and Parekh.

My gripe today however is not with Zim; after all his actions are not extraordinary. Truth be told, I would’ve been extremely surprised; even shocked had he acted in a different manner. My gripe is with the board of Kumba who, petrified of being called racist or anti-transformation, accept the untenable situation; the only sign of resistance; an odd cowardly remark dropped in passing by board members hoping to placate their nagging consciences.

Board members fearing the racist label are the same people running around claiming, after the fact, their innocence and rabid opposition to apartheid. Today these captains of industry are as silent as their predecessors in the apartheid years; a silence then, that only broke when they saw the writing on the wall. Once again these brave men of integrity are carefully watching for the writing to appear; the sign for them to allow their integrity to once again burst into the open.

My message to these captains of industry; moral pillars of big business; stock up on bully beef and candles, fill up the water cans; there is a long wait ahead – I hope you will find your integrity and values at the end of your vigil.