Local Economic Development (LED) is an integral part of Kumba’s license to mine
Social and community development (SCD) is coordinated by Kumba’s SCD Department. Previously, SCD was managed by a combined environment and SCD department. During the year, the two were separated, with environmental again combining with safety and falling under the leadership of the new safety and sustainable development executive. A corporate manager for SCD was appointed, reporting to the public affairs executive.
The SCD Department is responsible for meeting Kumba’s social and labour plan commitments, specifically local economic development in the sense of the Mining Charter (the revised charter calls for the company to “conduct ethnographic community consultative and collaborative processes to delineate community needs analysis” which will be measured by the implementation of community approved projects). In addition to being directly responsible for local economic development at the operational level, the SCD Departments at each mine are responsible for ensuring that each mine meets its SLP
commitments by engaging with the relevant departments. In other words, the SCD departments are the custodians of the SLPs at each mine.
The SCD function extends beyond the compilation and execution of social and labour plans. In fact, much of Kumba’s development work is not guided by the SLP. Kumba chooses to regard its SCD programme, whether SLP or not, as part of the same commitment to South Africa, irrespective of whether the budget is for SLP or not. Furthermore, the way in which Kumba decides what projects to support is the same irrespective of who or what the project is for. Kumba is committed to supporting development programmes and projects that are based on good research and that are suitable and necessary for the people and areas for which they are intended.
