Glencore Mine back in operation after four weeks 

Rustenburg/ Bethanie – The Glencore Rhovan mine operations, situated in Bethanie village in the Rustenburg Local Municipality, is back in operation after four weeks of work stoppage. This after local residents blockaded roads, complaining about lack of employment opportunities by the contractors’ doing business at the mine. The mine workforce comprises 65% of the local community members.
 
After three weeks of negotiation between the provincial government, Rhovan Glencore mine and community leaders, agreed on short, medium, and long term solutions, with employment of fixed term workers being an immediate measure. Seventy workers will be employed immediately and another batch of seventy will be employed in July for a minimum of six months, in different projects including the establishment of a solar power farm.    

“We are delighted to announce that the community has agreed to opportunities presented to them by the mine as a short-term measure. We will resolve other issues raised which included the businesses after creating legitimate structures in the areas,” said MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT) Virginia Tlhapi.

“We intend to host community meetings in all Bakwena ba Mogopa villages to form structures that will champion the interest of the communities. The provincial government also intends to oversee the formation of the Board of Trustees as soon as possible, which will be accountable to the mine royalties of Bakwena Ba Mogopa and further create socio-economic opportunities for all,” MEC Tlhapi added. 

Glencore’s chief operation officer, Adriaan Brugman said the Rhovan remains committed to empowering their host communities so that they thrive with good education, better health facilities and with business and employment opportunities.

“We have employed 649 workers and 65% are from the Bakwena Ba Mogopa villages and we have about 380 on fixed term contracts of which 86% are locals. All employment and business opportunities are advertised on our information portal to ensure fairness and transparency. We are creating other opportunities through the implementation of the social and labour plans. The current SLP is yet to be approved. This is worrisome because we want to implement projects and unlock more opportunities,” said Brugman.

Through Glencore’s SLP projects, the mine has amongst others built the Bethanie Clinic, Barseba, Makolokwe and Bethanie Sports Facility, built ablution facilities at the local schools and has entered into a MoU with Magalies Water and Rustenburg Local Municipality to supply bulk water to local community members. 

The mine is also skilling local community members for employment opportunities and to be business-ready. The mine also empowers locals through training and development interventions including bursaries, learnerships, scholarships, internships, and business studies through GIBS. 

North West Department of Cooperative Governance press release extracts