For a start, I immediately wish to give the highest recognition and honour to the true Congress of the People's 1955 Freedom Charter in today's Budget Vote 31 - Mineral Resources, by quoting:
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
With these words of wisdom, not only for admiration but implementation as well, in our national democratic revolution of the ANC, I wish to say that mining remains one of the important sectors in the economy of the country. In 2008, this sector accounted for about 8% of the gross domestic product directly, and for 18% if the indirect multiplier and induced effects were included. It employed 296 000 employees, which is about 2,28% of the total working population, in the last quarter of 2009. However, only 34 000, which is about 11,5% of persons employed in the mining sector during the aforementioned period, were women. This is cause for concern, and the current situation can be traced back to the deliberate exclusion of women in mining in South Africa and even globally.
A final look at transformation with regard to women in the mining industry needs serious attention with specific reference to representation, beneficiation and needs. Moreover, challenges faced by women in incorporation, allocation and job opportunities, control and their biological make-up, are portrayed to disadvantage them within the mining industry.
The International Labour Organisation's Underground Work (Women) Convention of 1935, prohibited employment of women in underground work, with article 2 of the convention stating that no female, whatever her age, will be employed to do underground work at any time.
However, article 3 provided for the exemption of females who had to enter the underground parts of a mine for the purpose of performing their nonmanual duties in the following categories:
a) females holding positions of management and who do not perform manual work;
b) females employed in health and welfare services;
c) females who, in the course of their studies, spend a period of training in the underground parts of a mine; and
d) any other females who may occasionally have to enter the underground parts of a mine for the purpose of a nonmanual occupation.
In South Africa, the Minerals Act, Act 50 of 1991, also excluded women from working underground. This Act was repealed by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002. The MPRDA actually addresses the ownership aspect of discrimination in the mining industry. Section 12 of the MPRDA makes provision for facilitation of assistance by the Minister to historically disadvantaged persons to conduct prospecting or mining operations which, by the way, seem to portray their own challenges in this respect.
The Broad-Based Socioeconomic Empowerment Charter for the South African mining industry, better known as the mining charter, came into effect in 2004. The mining charter defines broad-based socioeconomic empowerment as redressing the results of past or present discrimination based on race, gender or other disability of historically disadvantaged persons in the minerals and petroleum industries, as well as in the value chain of such industries.
The Mining Charter includes a scorecard which requires the mining companies to establish and implement plans to achieve the target for women's participation in mining of 10% within five years. The five years expired in 2009, and very little progress is visible since the adoption of the charter.
Yes, there is acknowledgement that since the introduction of the mining charter there has been an increase in the participation of women in mining, with some companies managing to achieve the 10% target set while many have not. In 2007, more that 12,5% of Anglo Coal's total workforce was women, and 6,7% of technical occupations were occupied by women.
Anglo American reported, as at the end of June 2007, that 13,34% of the company's total workforce was made up of women, some 7,23% of whom played technical roles within the organisation. The company employed 241 women at the coalface, 14 in coal processing, 22 in geology, and 53 in metallurgy. Impala Platinum started the Women in Mining programme in 2004 as a response to the mining charter. Regardless of attempts by the company to achieve targets, it only had 5,8% women in its workforce by the end of May 2007.
I could go on with attempted achievements and progress, but we need to stop and start reviewing progress and the effectiveness of these processes to the advantage of our women. A constant thought is also how the statistics of women actually and significantly apply to black women in particular. The vibrations and powers embedded within the mining industries' employment and ownership opportunities are certainly not yet to the advantage of black South African women, not to mention the basic required employment equity targets that need to be met.
This is also then a reminder to the Minister to ensure finalisation of the beneficiation strategy in small-scale mining and present this to the portfolio committee by October 2010, bearing in mind that within the beneficiation strategy the possibility should be explored of the state mining company being the majority shareholder in the beneficiation industry, and that government should establish a mineral industrial beneficiation zone.
Furthermore, the Minister should ensure that a 10% mining charter requirement is achieved by all companies within the required timeframes, and that the 10% requirement does not become new job reservation compliance, which is black women underground and white women in skilled jobs in offices.
Pregnancies can slow down women's career progression. Waist and back pains and severe menstrual pain are attributed to their jobs. Currently, because of high levels of radiation underground, women have to be removed within three months of their pregnancy. This then only allows them to be placed elsewhere in the working area until their maternity leave is applicable. The disadvantage currently is that their underground benefits are removed, meaning that the worry of an already cut salary further allows complications in the pregnancy, risking the life of the unborn baby in particular, whose rights appear not to be a priority at this stage of pregnancy. Further, the mother has to stress about a cut salary, which is aggravated by psychological ill health due to the stress and anxiety of making ends meet.
There is absolutely nothing accommodative in terms of the labour laws and basic human rights of the pregnant woman in the mining industry, so whether in labour or not, she is suffering. So many reviews and possible amendments are being made within the Mine Health and Safety Act, as well as in related mining laws. [Interjections.]