and stakeholder responsiveness
Social Capital is any value added to the activities and economic outputs of an organisation by human relationships, partnerships and cooperation.
Organisations rely on social relationships and interactions to
achieve their objectives. Externally, social structures help create a
climate of consent or a licence to operate, in which trade and the wider functions of society are
possible. Organisations also rely on wider socio-political structures to create a stable society in
which to operate, e.g. government and public services, effective legal systems, trade unions and other
organisations.
Being responsive to stakeholders enables the Venture to:
Both Merafe and the Venture are committed to working with local authorities, community representatives,
inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and other interested parties to develop and
support community investment projects.
Both the Venture and Merafe focus on sustainable projects,
with their focus being on education, infrastructure and health issues in the communities in which the
Venture operates.
The Venture's corporate social investment (CSI) spend for the 12-month period to December 2022 was R121 million (2021: R73 million). Merafe contributes to 20.5% of this spend.
This included expenditure on inter alia Enterprise and Job Creation Projects, Education, Social and Community Development Projects, Health Projects and Culture and Art Projects.
The Venture projects included:
In addition to the above, Merafe has been supporting both Meriti Secondary School (Meriti) and Boitekong
Secondary School (Boitekong) with the implementation of a variety of infrastructure, curriculum and social
welfare projects through Adopt-a-School Foundation (the Foundation). Both schools are in the North West
province and are situated within communities that are characterised by poverty, violence, crime, alcohol
and substance abuse, family disorganisation and despair.
The Merafe CSI spend in 2022 was R3 million in addition to its contribution (20.5%) of the Venture's CSI
spend mentioned above. As previously reported, Merafe supports projects at Meriti and Boitekong Secondary
Schools. In 2022, the projects included Health, Sanitation and Sexuality Education projects, Moral
Regeneration Projects and Psychosocial Support Services implemented across both schools.
Health, Sanitation and Sexuality Education Projects: The aim and objectives of the Health, Sanitation and
Sexuality Education project is to provide a conducive space and platform to educate and empower teenagers
(both female and male learners) in schools, to make informed
decisions relating to sexual relations in order to curb teenage pregnancy at schools. The programme
involves learners as active participants (led by Peer Educators) with the support of educators, parents,
and relevant stakeholders within the community.
Moral Regeneration Project: Social ills and violence at communities and schools continue to have an impact
on the children's well-being and their learning opportunity. The overall goal of the project is to engage
learners in dialogue sessions on issues pertaining to sound morals and values (address issues of
violence), and help learners develop social, ethical, emotional, physical, and cognitive competencies to
enable them to set personal goals, as well as participate in the creation of a conducive learning
environment.
Psychosocial Support Services: To address the needs of vulnerable learners at school, Psychosocial Support
has been added to the projects. The service provider, Hartbeespoort Parent and Child Counselling Centre
provides Psychosocial Support services to learners as an addition
to the project. The process involves the identification of learners with social problems and creates
sustainable referral pathways with external stakeholders, including follow up of all referred
cases.
The communities in which these schools are in Rustenburg are characterised by poverty, violence, crime,
alcohol abuse, substance abuse and family breakdowns. These structural impediments have infiltrated
themselves into the school environment as identified by the projects and affect the normal functioning of
teaching and learning within the schools. The projects are facilitated to address these problems, hence
engagement of all stakeholders including learners, educators, service providers from the community, and
parents.
Small, medium and micro enterprises play a key role in job creation in South Africa and our investment in their development is an important part of the contribution both Merafe and the Venture make to the socio-economic capacity of communities. It also increases our ability to procure from black-owned enterprises. The Venture has enterprise development commitments in terms of the Mining Charter Scorecard. The Venture spent R19 million (2021: R17.4 million) on enterprise development in 2022.
Merafe spent R14 million in 2022 on an enterprise and supplier development fund aimed at supporting small and medium enterprises through responsible investment and ensuring B-BBEE code compliance. Merafe has provided the fund with an interest-free loan and expects repayment of the capital amount on winding up of the fund at the end of a three-year period from the reporting date.
The Venture recognises that its commitment to employing local people whenever possible is to the advantage
of both itself and the local communities. Direct employment at the Venture's operations, indirect
employment through contractors and its use of local suppliers provide an income for thousands of
families.
Our commitment to employing local people includes providing training opportunities that enable community
members to meet the Venture's competency requirements.
The Venture's performance in terms of the discretionary procurement targets of the Mining Charter
Scorecard is set out below:
In terms of the new Mining Charter, procurement spend by the Venture for 2022 was approximately R28.2
billion. Of this R17.6 billion, was on discretionary spend. R8.68 billion of the discretionary spend was
on mining goods (64.2% B-BBEE spend) and R8.9 billion on services (61.57% B-BBEE spend).
| Total procurement
spend R |
Non‑discretionary spend R |
Discretionary spend R |
B-BBEE spend R |
% | ||
| Capital + Consumables (Mining Goods) | 8 912 198 423 | 229 788 055 | 8 682 410 368 | 5 573 778 496 | 64.20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Services | 19 292 558 320 | 10 385 176 872 | 8 907 381 447 | 5 483 840 474 | 61.57 | |
| Total | 28 204 756 743 | 10 614 964 927 | 17 589 791 815 | 11 057 618 970 |
B-BBEE spend as a % of discretionary spend
The Venture favours a united approach to public health, whereby we collaborate with government, international organisations and NGOs to make the most impact at community level. The public-private partnerships formed by the Venture provide communities access to prevention, treatment and care for HIV and Aids as well as other communicable and associated diseases. The Venture supports the government's HIV counselling and treatment campaign by providing funding and testing sites. It has also funded health clinics and hospices in the communities in which it operates, including an HIV and Aids clinic in Lydenburg in Mpumalanga province. There is also a health clinic at the Lion ferrochrome plant in Limpopo province.
Neither Merafe nor the Venture tolerate any form of discrimination and our policies clearly state that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination, and that all our employees and stakeholders are to be treated with dignity and in a manner that is culturally appropriate, irrespective of gender, background or race.
Merafe subscribes to the fundamental principles of human rights as enshrined in our country's Constitution and Bill of Rights. Our policies and practices have been aligned with both to ensure that all our employees and stakeholders are treated with dignity and in a manner that is culturally appropriate, irrespective of gender, background or race. Furthermore, Glencore is a signatory to and has accepted the Voluntary Principles of Security and Human Rights.
The Merafe Code of Ethics governs the way we do business and the way our directors and employees engage with our stakeholders. The Code, which is binding on our directors, employees and contractors, provides guidelines for behaviour which is above reproach.
Merafe supports the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and upholds the performance expectations associated with Traditional Authorities. Our engagements with Traditional Authorities around our operations assisted the Venture in enhancing transparency, resolving complaints and grievances promptly, and embedding cooperation with doorstep communities.
Merafe and the Venture address material issues we have identified that could impact negatively or positively on our key stakeholders. These stakeholders include national, provincial and local government in their roles as regulators and partners; the trade unions in their role as representatives of the Venture's employees who are from local communities; and our investors and business partners who are affected by all aspects of our business. The impact of our most material issues in regard to the Human, Natural, Social and Manufactured Capitals on our stakeholders, together with our responsiveness on these issues, is outlined in this report.
While Merafe has direct relationships with certain key stakeholders in connection with community matters, we also have indirect relationships through our partnership with Glencore in the Venture. As managers of the Venture's day-to-day operations, Glencore takes responsibility for engaging with the Venture's stakeholders.
All the Venture's operations and projects are expected to review the stakeholder engagement plans every year which includes Traditional Authorities. The Venture's operations held formal community stakeholder meetings where possible during the year. Virtual engagements continued during periods of lockdown.
Our corporate social investment and social labour plans are aligned to the objectives outlined in the 2030 UNSDGs, the National Development Plan for South Africa and the Integrated Development Plans for Local Municipalities.
All the Venture's operations and projects are expected to review the stakeholder engagement plans every year. The Venture's operations held formal community stakeholder meetings during the year.
In 2015 the Venture identified issues material to communities and stakeholders that assisted its social and labour plans for the five-year period from 2015 to 2020.
See the stakeholder engagement table on our website for details of the Venture's engagement and Merafe's engagement during 2022.
See our website for further information on governance, social and environmental performance of the Venture and Merafe as well as externally developed principles, charters and initiatives to which Merafe and the Venture subscribe.
