Though poverty and SA’s economic downturn are at the heart of much community unrest, industry players point, too, to more nefarious motives.
"It’s not just community unrest — some of this is just straight up criminal behaviour," says Assore CEO Charles Walters, in relation to relentless disruptions of the mining company’s Limpopo operations.
The Minerals Council SA’s Tebello Chabana says the mines have been forthright with provincial authorities and police about the pressing need to arrest criminals in these protests.
"We need police to do their job. It’s not enough for us to just report it and take out interdicts and nothing happens. We need to see action taken," he says.
"As the Minerals Council, we are trying to empower companies to understand how to get police to deal with the threat appropriately. We don’t want to see another Marikana, so it’s important the disruptions are dealt with in a way that respects human rights."
South32’s Mike Fraser sets out what can only be described as extortion. "In the past 12 months, we have seen an escalation in organised protests that are in the interest of a small number of individuals who ask us to breach standard commercial processes for their own benefit."
But ActionAid’s Christopher Rutledge says that while there are opportunists and sharks in every community, the mines themselves have cultivated these attitudes by paying individuals to go away when communities have approached them with legitimate requests.
"There is a vacuum as to how community benefit is regulated," he says. "And where there is a vacuum, criminal elements are going to occupy that space."
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