Sibanye-Stillwater's Froneman - Business must be ‘outspoken’ about the high cost of state failures

Froneman, in his typically blunt manner, told Daily Maverick in an interview on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town that the anti-crime initiatives that business is partnering with the government on are just treating the “symptoms” and not the underlying cause.

“We are just treating the symptoms. These problems are all being caused by poor leadership, and the leadership of this country has to change. And we need to be more outspoken about that,” he said.

“What underpins these failures is the ideology of state control. Business and civil society must be a lot more outspoken about this."

Froneman is very aware of the mounting costs of crime and security in South Africa and the toll that is being extracted from business.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Surface raids increase while Sibanye beats back underground crime

Sibanye’s security costs in 2023 amounted to R1.1-billion, 19% higher than the R928-million the company spent in 2022.

Sibanye had 458 incidents last year in which illegal miners targeted its underground gold operations and there were 158 attacks on its security officers in 2023, up from the 141 recorded in 2022. The company’s security init apprehended 1,239 illegal miners in 2023.

Copper cable theft cost the company over R93-million last year directly from 1,977 incidents. That figure does not include production losses.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Attacks on security personnel at SA mines increase while underground safety improves

This is why Froneman is involved in the business/government partnership to tackle crime and corruption.

“As a work stream, it’s going well but it’s taken six to seven months just to put structure in place and get organised. I don’t think you will see any visible results for a while because the wheels of justice grind very slowly. But I have to be positive about it, we will make a difference.”

One area is the 10111 emergency number and the collapsed call centres which are supposed to handle such calls.

“It’s not our priority but we work with them and have brought in private sector expertise to get that working again. We have an initiative in Midrand to get that up and running. But it’s going to take months,” Froneman said.

One major challenge is the judicial system.

“The real constraint is the judicial system. There are cases that have been heard that just need judges to make a decision. There are cases that have been prepared which need to go through court,” Froneman said.

“If we can unlock the judicial system and maybe set up special courts, that would help.” DM