Today Monday 9th February, ACTSA along with Tlou Mogale Foundation, Justice for Miners and MACUA are launching Anglo American Accountability Deficit: The devastating 100 year legacy of extraction by South Africa’s largest mining company: A call for corporate accountability across Southern Africa, Latin America and the Global South.
You can read or download the report here.
It brings together the experiences of communities in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Peru, Chile and Colombia, affected by Anglo American operations who have yet to see accountability and remedy, as well as an opinion piece by Prof Dr Pali Lehohla. Covered in the report:
- The contagion of TB and silicosis by an estimated 500,000 gold miners over decades, due to negligence, and the blocking of compensation they won in a 2019 settlement
- The impact of lead poisoning on over 100,000 people in Kabwe, Zambia, especially children, where Anglo operated one of the world’s most productive mine for 49 years
- The widespread environmental and social impact on Anglo on communities in South Africa living close to Anglo mines
- Deepening inequality and unfulfilled promises: The impact in Zimbabwe of the Unki mine, which only demerged from Anglo last year and is hailed as an example of responsible mining
- Melting glaciers and polluted groundwater: How communities are experiencing Anglo’s turn towards South America in the search for critical minerals like copper.
- Rivers diverted and communities displaced: The displacement of indigenous communities in Colombia around a coal mine Anglo co-owned for two decades.
- The regulatory, voluntary and legislative tools available to ensure there is accountability
The report looks at a 2007 report by UK-based charity War on Want about Anglo American and asks, behind the framing of responsible mining, how much has changed?
NGOs featured include Tlou Mogale Foundation, Justice for Miners, MACUA, Environment Africa Zambia, London Mining Network, Movimiento No+ Anglo, Moquegua branch of the National Agricultural Confederation (CNA), Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) and Benchmarks Foundation.
Background: Anglo American last year announced a merger with Canadian miner Teck Resources which will see it move its locus to Canada. This catalysed a civil society movement in South Africa, supported by communities worldwide, that culminated in a petition being handed in to the South African Parliament by MACUA in November 2025 as part of the continuing 100 year debt campaign.