IVANHOE MINES LTD CASE

2c. insidiously corrupting communities and CSO networks

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd is a Canadian multinational operating in SA through Platreef Resources Limited
(recently renamed Ivanplats (Pty) Ltd), which acquired a mining licence for the platinum-rich
Bushveld complex, near Mokopane, about 280km from Johannesburg. In 2010, it signed ‘unlawful’
surface use and cooperative agreements with Mokopane traditional chief, Vaaltyn Lesibana Kekana
to allow its prospecting activities on community land in the area. 1 The signature was a culmination of
over a decade of insidious corruption of the community.

The Mokopane traditional council’s official minute book documents instances of corrupt subtle
overtures. It records Platreef’s R1000 donation for the burial of former chief Alfred Kekana in 2000. 2
It also details Platreef’s expensive, imported leopard skin gift at Chief Kekana’s inauguration in 2001.
Joseph Kekana, a council member, explained the gift thus:
During a chief’s inauguration, we buy the skin of a leopard, so because the skin of a leopard
is now scarce, we got it from Canada - somewhere in Canada. They brought it; they were
contributing because they have activities in our area. They own mines. So they are the ones
who bought the skin for us. The Canadians! 3
The minutes reveal several letters of invitation for occasions such as braais, acceptances from the
royal family and a letter from the Kekana family expressing gratitude for gracious reception at a
Platreef event.4 There is record of an invitation to 14 council members to a barbeque at Platreef’s
office in Mokopane in December 2001, with promise for cash ‘transport’ facilitation. 5 Platreef’s
R3000 donation to the council in late 2001 and two R1500 donations for two funerals of the chief's
family members are also captured. 6 In email to the Globe and Mail, Ivanhoe defended the gifts as
being, ‘line with traditional cultural customs’ and ‘appropriate expressions of congratulation and
respect.’7

The 2010 surface lease agreement entitled the chief to several benefits: a monthly net ‘stipend’ of
R30,000, a laptop computer, use of Uitloop farm in Platreef’s mining area at a nominal rent of R1 a
month, monthly contribution of up to R1500 for services and security, annual ‘gratuity’ and a lump-
sum payment, to be determined by Ivanhoe, into a ‘trust’ of the chief's choice. 8 It grants the chief
discretion to identify schools to benefit from CSR initiatives. Ivanhoe defended these as, ‘reasonable
1
Lawyers for Human Rights, “Appeal in terms of Section 96(1) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Development Act (MRPDA) Against the Decision to Grant a Mining Right to Platreef Resources (Pty) Ltd,” 3 July
2014, http://www.lhr.org.za/sites/lhr.org.za/files/miacc_-_notice_of_appeal_mokopane_-_3_july_2014_-_fina
l.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
2
Geoffrey York, “Robert Friedland’s Mining Showdown in South Africa,” The Globe and Mail, 9 January, 2015,
https:/www.lhr.org.za/news/2015/robert-friedland%E2%80%99s-mining-showdown-south-africa (accessed 31
July, 2019).
3
Skosana D, “The interface between tradition and modern in post-apartheid South Africa: an outline of the
Kekana family succession dispute and their encounter with the Platinum Reef Resource mine,” (2013) 67 The
New Contree: Journal of Historical and Human Sciences for Southern Africa, p. 88-89,
https://dspace.nwu.ac.za /bitstream/handle/10394/9876/NC_67%282013%29_Skosana_D.pdf?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed 31 July, 2019).
4
Buthelezi Mbongiseni and Skosana Dineo, “The Salience of Chiefs in Post Apartheid South Africa: Reflections
on the Nhlapo Commission,” in Comaroff JL and Comaroff J (eds) The Politics of Custom: Chiefship, Capital and
the State in Contemporary Africa (2018) Chicago: University of Chicago Press p. 127.
5
Buthelezi Mbongiseni and Skosana Dineo, “The Salience of Chiefs in Post Apartheid South Africa: Reflections
on the Nhlapo Commission,” in Comaroff, J.L. and J. Comaroff. eds., 2018. The Politics of Custom: Chiefship,
Capital and the State in Contemporary Africa. Chicago, IL; London: University of Chicago Press, pp. 100–35.
6
Geoffrey York, “Robert Friedland’s Mining Showdown in South Africa,” The Globe and Mail, 9 January, 2015,
https:/www.lhr.org.za/news/2015/robert-friedland%E2%80%99s-mining-showdown-south-africa (accessed 31
July, 2019).
7
ibid.
remuneration for the time Kekana spent on company activities in line with legally accepted norms
and standards.’ It listed Kekana’s duties to include facilitating meetings with Mokopane traditional
authorities and communities, advising on cultural requirements and standards for consultation, the
appointment of service providers, catering and heritage-related matters. 9 It added that the laptop
was for company activities, the annual bonus is not to the chief directly and no money was paid into
a trust account.10 The discretion on schools was, ‘a practical arrangement because the company did
not have sufficient knowledge about the area.’ 11

The surface lease agreement further granted R3000 monthly payments to the chief's adviser David
Kekana and five village headmen. It guaranteed monthly payments of R30000 and R10000 to the
community mining committees of Tshamahansi and Magongoa respectively in addition to cell phones
and computers for each member. 12 Again, Ivanhoe defended the payments as, ‘entirely reasonable
remuneration for time spent on tasks related to company activities.’ It noted that these leaders’ tasks
included notifying communities of public meetings, ensuring that mealie field compensation was
paid to the right people and assisting with queries and grievances involving these payments. 13 These
benefits go to private individuals and not the community and are significantly high in a community
that survives on social grants.14 They are negotiated without broader community involvement,
border on bribery, shrouded in secrecy, and their contents never published or disclosed. They
compromise neutrality of the traditional leadership and render them materially beholden to Ivanhoe
instead of serving as trustees for their people. 15

In contrast, the agreement fixed ‘mealie field’ compensation payments for villagers whose properties
were directly affected during prospecting at a meagre R5250 per family annually. 16 Ivanhoe says it
has paid this amount to 300 families, sometimes as often as twice a year. 17 Acting on community
concerns about unfairness and corruption in the agreement, the Department of Mineral Resources
(DMR) on 26 October 2012 served Ivanhoe with a directive in terms of Section 93 of the MPRD Act. 18
The directive ordered Ivanhoe to cease all prospecting operations, disband the mining committees

8
Lucky Biyase, “Ivanhoe drills into mistrust at Platreef,” Sunday Times, 13 December, 2014, https://www.times
live.co.za/sunday-times/business/2014-12-13-ivanhoe-drills-into-mistrust-at-platreef/ (accessed 31 July, 2019).
9
Rebecca Davis, “Ivanhoe’s Platreef mine: Doing business in a complicated country,” Daily Maverick, 13 January
2015, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-01-13-ivanhoes-platreef-mine-doing-business-in-a-
complicated-country/ (accessed 31 July, 2019).
10
Franz Wild and Tshepiso Mokhema, “SA platinum project faces local challenge,” Bloomberg News, 8 October
2014, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-07/friedland-s-south-africa-platinum-project-faces
-local-challenge (accessed 31 July, 2019).
11
Lucky Biyase, “Ivanhoe drills into mistrust at Platreef,” Sunday Times, 13 December, 2014, https://www.times
live.co.za/sunday-times/business/2014-12-13-ivanhoe-drills-into-mistrust-at-platreef/ (accessed 31 July, 2019).
12
ibid.
13
ibid.
14
Popopo Mohlala, “Mining-led Development and Local Politics of Youth Participation in the Mokopane
Traditional Authority Area in Limpopo Province, South Africa,” Msc Geography and Environmental Studies
Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 2017, p. 62, http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/25125
(accessed 31 July, 2019).
15
ibid.
16
Sipho Kings, “Limpopo mining: Dream fields lie fallow under dust,” Mail & Guardian, 30 August 2013,
https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-30-00-limpopo-mining-dream-fields-lie-fallow-under-dust (accessed 31 July,
2019).
17
Geoffrey York, “Robert Friedland’s Mining Showdown in South Africa,” The Globe and Mail, 9 January, 2015,
https:/www.lhr.org.za/news/2015/robert-friedland%E2%80%99s-mining-showdown-south-africa (accessed 31
July, 2019).
18
OreWin Pty Ltd, “Ivanhoe Mines Ltd: Platreef 2017 Feasibility Study,” September, 2017, p. 76, https://www.i
vanhoemines.com/site/assets/files/2981/platreef-feasibility-study-september-2017.pdf (accessed 31 July,
2019).
and to stop payments to traditional leaders pending proper consultation with the communities in the
presence of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR). 19 DMR lifted this
directive on 28 May 2013 on condition that Platreefs continues engaging the community. 20

There were also concerns that payments for relocation of graves inside Platreef’s mining area
manipulated the next of kin. 21 However, Ivanhoe clarified that the R26000 payment per family was
best practice,22 to cater for dignified reburial. 23 It breaks down reburial costs thus: R1000 to headman
for formal graveyard, R950 for coffin, R300 for blanket to cover the coffin, R3500 for an accredited
funeral undertaker, R6000 for groceries, R8800 for an animal to be slaughtered for the ritual, R1500
for transport of the next of kin, R200 for airtime and R3200 for tombstone. 24

In 2014, there were elections for representatives to the community Trust Advisory Council, the face
of a broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) deal with Ivanplats. Scrutiny shows that
only ‘compromised’ mining supporters secured trustee positions amid chaos and boycott by five of
the 20 host villages.25 In email to Bloomberg News, Ivanplats denied influencing the elections, noting
that they were independently conducted ‘according to the community’s customs and monitored by
Ernst & Young.’26 Further, many former anti-mining community activists are now employees and
contractors in the mining company. 27 Whereas the company explains that they were subjected to ‘fair
recruitment process,’28 the strategy has effectively collapsed many community anti-mining activist
structures.29 There are also allegations, corroborated by witnesses, that international security
company Blacksand, acting for Ivanhoe Mines, offered Aubrey Langa, a local anti mining activist R10
million to drop his anti-mining campaign. 30 Blacksand and Ivanhoe have vehemently denied the
19
Platreef Resources (Pty) Ltd v The Kgobudi Traditional Community (case 29218/12), p.4, para 10, 16 October
2012, http://www.lhr.org.za/sites/lhr.org.za/files/judgment_16oct12_transcription_0.pdf (accessed 31 July,
2019).
20
OreWin Pty Ltd, “Ivanhoe Mines Ltd: Platreef 2017 Feasibility Study,” September, 2017, p. 76, https://www.i
vanhoemines.com/site/assets/files/2981/platreef-feasibility-study-september-2017.pdf (accessed 31 July,
2019).
21
Geoffrey York, “Friedland-backed mine is told to stop exhuming historic graves,” The Globe and Mail, 4
December 2016, https://miningnews.co.za/2016/12/04/friedland-backed-mine-is-told-to-stop-exhuming-histo
ric-graves (accessed 31 July, 2019).
22
Ivanhoe Mines, “Statement: Globe and Mail readers are being misled,” 5 December, 2016, https://www.ivan
hoemines.com/site/assets/files/2003/2016-12-05_nr.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
23
Aubrey Langa & 16 Others v Ivanplats (Pty) Ltd & 19 Others (92090/2016) [2017] ZAGPPHC 829, p. 5, para 9,
16 February 2017, http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAG PPHC/2017/829.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
24
Sonwabile Mnwana, Farai Mtero and Michelle Hay, “Dispossessing the Dispossessed? Mining and Rural
Struggles in Mokopane, Limpopo,” (2016) 7 Society Work and Development Institute Working Paper Series,
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4e496b_9ab11de213f8464fbafb3d566c31deaa.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
25
Franz Wild and Tshepiso Mokhema, “SA platinum project faces local challenge,” Bloomberg News, 8 October
2014, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-07/friedland-s-south-africa-platinum-project-faces
-local-challenge (accessed 31 July, 2019).
26
ibid.
27
Comment by Mr Hussein Kopole Masehlaneng during an EIA public Participation meeting at Mmadikana
Sport Ground on 1 December, 2013, in Digby Wells Environmental, “Environmental Authorisations for the
Proposed Platreef Underground Mine Project, Near Mokopane In The Limpopo Province: Comments and
Response Report,” January, 2014 p. 33 https://sahris.sahra.org.za/sites/default/files/additionaldocs/Appendix
%20D-8%20PLA1677_Platreef_CRR_Rev%2010_20140107.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
28
ibid.
29
Phillan Zamchiya, “Mining, Capital and Dispossession in Limpopo, South Africa,” (2019) 56 Institute for
Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies Working Paper Series, https://www.africaportal.org/publications/mining-
capital-and-dispossession-limpopo-south-africa (accessed 31 July, 2019).
30
Enelless Nyale, “Limpopo’s Aubrey Langa Fights to Keep Ivanplats Project Out of Town,” AmaBhungane
Centre for Investigative Journalism, 22 April 2016, https://amabhungane.org/stories/limpopos-aubrey-langa-
fights-to-keep-ivanplats-project-out-of-town (accessed 31 July, 2019).
claims, adding that, ‘it actually was Mr Langa who was looking for some kind of settlement.’ 31
Moreover, most beneficiaries of Platreef’s Social and Labour Plan (SLP) programmes, such as
bursaries and business support are associates and family of the traditional leadership. 32 This
engenders a dim view of SLP programs as just schemes to benefit ‘capitalist’s children’. 33 Finally,
tenders for community development projects are reserved for contractors affiliated to traditional
leadership who misappropriate payments and deliver a minute fraction of the actual deliverables. 34

31
ibid.
32
Popopo Mohlala Thesis, supra, note 14, p. 67-68; Centre for Applied Legal Studies, “The Social and Labour
Plan Series Phase 2: Implementation Operation Analysis Report,” March, 2017, p. 32,
https://www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-university/faculties-and-schools/commerce-law-and-management/researc
h-entities/cals/documents/programmes/environment/resources/SLP%20Report%20II%202%20March%20201
7.pdf (accessed 31 July, 2019).
33
ibid.
34
ibid.