RESEARCH REPORT: Mining royalty payments system ‘a sham’, says Corruption Watch By Greg Nicolson gregnicolson
Community members were reluctant to talk when Corruption Watch researchers held meetings about mining royalties in Limpopo’s platinum-rich region. They were divided and scared to speak about what they perceived as collusion between traditional authorities and mining companies.
The research, funded by the Open Society Foundation, explains how royalties generally fail to benefit communities. The issues have been traversed before but, as the report points out, little has been done to address the challenges. A number of new regulations have been enacted to improve the system of community compensation but Corruption Watch criticised the legal framework as weak and disconnected from the reality that gives rise to community division.
The report said mining companies were sometimes complicit in entering into dubious deals with communities and ignoring traditional leaders.This state of affairs leaves mining communities vulnerable to corruption in the form of pay-offs and ‘handshakes’ to a select few individuals in these communities to the severe detriment of the majority who remain living in a state of abject poverty and neglect,” it reads.
Corruption Watch called for stakeholders to adopt a set of best practice guidelines in dealing with royalties.
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