Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) has responded to news that the FCDO is partnering with mining giant Anglo American, which has a track record of poor community engagement and environmental degradation across Southern Africa in its pursuit of profits over peoples’ lives.
Anglo American announced the partnership with the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to “support inclusive growth in South Africa”, at the same time as it faces criticism over its lack of accountability in South Africa and over lead pollution in Zambia.
Tricia Sibbons, director of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) said:
“The list of acts of environmental destruction, social harm, impoverishment and neglect of community needs by Anglo American around the world, from Chile to Zambia, is long. Anglo’s partnership with the FCDO appears to be an attempt to divert attention from the growing scrutiny it is facing today across Southern Africa. This is a company that benefited from apartheid and influenced the economy post 1994 but whose imperialist logic has remained the same since 1917.
The UK taxpayer should not be funding this private company’s efforts to be socially responsible, while it faces a major class-action for harms caused to over 100,000 people at its former mine in Kabwe, Zambia. While British High Commissioner to South Africa Antony Phillipson CMG celebrates helping ‘innovative businesses access the resources they need’ by giving UK taxpayer money to one of world’s biggest mining companies, we want to know where is the engagement with communities who have been affected by Anglo American for more than a century and long suffered from its model of business?
ACTSA is concerned that the FCDO approach of ‘trade not aid’ limits transparency and simply serves to undermine campaigns for justice and accountability worldwide. Sibbons said “It is beyond belief that this is the best a Labour government could come up with for its G20 announcement on the day the Prime Minister arrives in South Africa – financially bolstering one of the most exploitative and damaging industries in the world – just as Anglo is leaving South Africa for Canada. We recommend this so-called partnership be urgently scrutinised by the government’s public account’s committee.”
- Anglo American announced earlier this year it was merging with Canadian company Teck Resources, and has now promised to relocate to Canada
- This has prompted a growing civil society call for accountability for harms the company has caused in South Africa, by organisations such as Mining Affected Communities United in Action (MACUA)
- Impacts in South Africa include leaving thousands of miners with life-limiting illnesses such as silicosis, land grabs, environmental damage, and exacerbating water scarcity
- The company also faces growing scrutiny over its role in polluting Kabwe, Zambia, now one of the world’s most polluted towns where 95% of children have lead poisoning – the subject of an appeal hearing earlier this month
- The company is also accused of environmental violations and neglecting community demands and needs and in countries including Zimbabwe, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Brazil
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NOTES:
Anglo American has repeatedly been criticised and questioned by civil society and human rights organisations, including the UN and Amnesty International, for failing to abide by its own commitments and promises. While the company’s motto is “Re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives,” its operations do the exact opposite by failing to engage with communities and their needs, reducing water availability in water-scarce regions, leaving pollution, infringing on indigenous people’s land rights, and damaging ecosystems.
This announcement comes as civil society in South Africa is mobilising to call for accountability in the wake of Anglo’s recent plans to merge with Canadian company Teck Resources. The ‘No Exit Without Justice’ campaign calls for the company to be held accountable for the environmental and social impact it has had on South Africa during its 108 years of extracting the country’s minerals at great profit.
Earlier this month, a South African court held an appeal hearing in relation to a class-action against Anglo American about lead pollution in Kabwe, Zambia. This is one of the biggest class-actions ever filed in Africa. At the hearing, Kate Hofmeyr SC representing the UN Special Rapporteurs and Procedures (UN Amici) argued that Anglo American’s resistance to the class action is in direct contradiction with its commitments under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and its own policies.
Some of Anglo American’s global impacts:
South Africa: Anglo American was the backbone of apartheid South Africa’s economy and has extracted more of South Africa’s mineral wealth than any other company. It leaves behind communities that are more impoverished, violent, and polluted and facing water scarcity. Thousands of miners have life-limiting diseases like silicosis due to neglectful health and safety policies, many of which have not been compensated. The adverse effects of its mining projects, including the ‘Green Hydrogen valley’, are the subject of an upcoming documentary by Brussels-based NGO the Corporate European Observatory.
Zambia: For 49 years Anglo American operated one of the most productive lead mines in the world in Kabwe, today known as one of the world’s most polluted towns. Despite experts agreeing most of the pollution is from Anglo American’s time, the company has refused to engage in discussions about funding remediation or blood monitoring programmes while most children in the area suffer from lead poisoning.
Zimbabwe: Communities near the Unki mine (which demerged from Anglo this year) have felt the effects, such as environmental degradation, pollution, displacement, violence and social disarticulation. Massive sand and dust storms have blown into their village, due to blasting, without warning or consultation.
Colombia: For over two decades until 2022, Anglo American co-owned the Cerrejón mine. The giant open-pit mine displaced and continues to displace indigenous Wayuu and African descent communities who have faced multiple issues as a result, including loss of their livelihood, damage to the natural environment, destruction of local watercourses, and contamination of water supplies and the air.
Chile: Anglo’s operations in Chile have seriously impacted water availability in a region experiencing a megadrought (leading to a community having to rely on truck tanks) and contributed to the destruction of glaciers as well as other adverse impacts.
Peru: Anglo’s Quellaveco project also consumes a lot of water in a region already dealing with water scarcity and has contributed to the diversion of the Asana river which could have long-term consequences for the region, as in the case of the diversion of the Arroyo Bruno in Colombia.
Brazil: Anglo American’s operations in Minas Rio in Minas Gerais state have been criticised for being imposed on local communities and for water pollution caused by mining waste spills.