Employment

The upgrading of hostels has for several years been a priority for AngloGold Ashanti and government as a way of remedying the industry’s migrant labour historical legacy. The Mining Charter requires companies to establish a programme for improving the quality of accommodation.

Historically, a large proportion of the industry’s workforce has been recruited from rural areas of South Africa and neighbouring states and accommodated in single sex hostels, with large numbers of employees in each dormitory-type room. In the apartheid years, influx control laws left mineworkers with little choice on where they could reside other than in employer-provided mine hostels.

AngloGold Ashanti currently has seven residences with 17,247 residents. It should be noted that there will always be a need for residences and the research undertaken to substantiate this indicated that a substantive portion of the company’s present residents have no intention to permanently resettle in the areas where AngloGold Ashanti operates.

Management has acknowledged the system as it used to be unacceptable and unsustainable, but that there are no quick and simple ways to fix this legacy. The gradualist approach involves a combination of initiatives:

• giving workers greater accommodation choices including through a living out allowance;
• reducing room densities;
• increasing the availability of temporary or permanent family accommodation; and
• democratising hostel management.

AngloGold Ashanti, together with other mining houses, committed to a Framework of Principles on Accommodation in 2003. The framework was designed to ensure that employees would be able to exercise accommodation options in order to normalise mining communities. It also aims to improve accommodation allocation criteria (for all categories of employees) and to ensure that the necessary collaborative forums are in place. Training stakeholders to be able to participate effectively in these forums is also key.

AngloGold Ashanti has committed to upgrading its residences. The company has already invested approximately R74 million in this project. A system of one person per room, and the provision of family accommodation is being implemented. Employees who choose not to take up company-provided accommodation also receive a “living out” allowance of R1,200 per month, which is intended to assist find alternative and suitable accommodation. The quantum of this allowance is determined annually, through the collective bargaining process.

Initiatives are in place to ensure that the living out allowance is not used to supplement income, or used to secure informal and inadequate accommodation. The company is acutely aware of the unintended consequences of paying the living out allowance to employees who elect not to utilise company-provided accommodation. As a result, the proliferation of informal settlements adjacent to mining operations and in nearby communities has become evident. The informal settlements are a cause for concern, and have an adverse impact on the rendering of normal social services by local authorities. Local government planning for provision of services such as water, sanitation, roads and related infrastructure have not anticipated the likely increase of users with the resultant pressure on existing services and the ability to render adequate and efficient services.

The residence's density has been reduced from a maximum of 12 people per room and a minimum of six people per room in 2002, to a maximum of eight people per room and a minimum of one person per room. At the end of December 2008 the company accommodated 2,139 employees in single rooms.

The Ekhayelihle residence at the West Wits operations as well as the old Number Six residence and West Boarding House Complex at the Vaal River operations were evaluated and found suitable for a phased redevelopment into flats for family accommodation. The designs and concept were distributed and accepted by the AngloGold Ashanti Accommodation Forum.

Progress achieved to date is as follows:

• 2004/5: Part of the old Number Three Residence was converted into 68 fully occupied family flats at the cost of R7.96million. During the same period Block Seven at Ekhayalihle Residence was redeveloped at a cost of R5.2million, and 48 units were fully constructed for occupation by December 2005.
• 2006/7: Block Six at Ekhayelihle residence has also been redeveloped at a cost of R5.7 million, 48 units were completed, and occupation taken in March 2007.
• 2007/8: Blocks Four and Five at Ekhayelihle residence were redeveloped at a cost of R15.8 million and 96 units were completed at the end of May 2008. During the same period the West Boarding House complex was converted into 23 fully occupied family units at the cost of R7.1 million.

It has also become necessary to attract specialist skills to mining, and the quality of accommodation available to prospective employees has become a key factor in retaining these skills.

The extensive upgrading and conversion plan for AngloGold Ashanti’s residences is linked to the ‘life of mine’ plan for each operation, forms part of the Social and Labour Plan, and aims to ensure that these accommodation facilities are sustainable, and can be integrated into communities beyond mining through a process of formalisation.

AngloGold Ashanti has embarked on the formalisation and integration of the Vaal River and West Wits Mine Villages (as well as adjacent land and properties) into the municipal area of Matlosana and Merafong. The objective of this process is to have the villages (and associated areas) proclaimed as a township within the Matlosana and Merafong Local Authority and thus promote communities which are more sustainable in the long term. Following significant technical planning and extensive consultation with accommodation forums, local authorities and other stakeholders, incorporation applications were lodged with the local government. A principle agreement from the local authority of Matlosana to proceed was received in July 2006 and the scoping report approved in September 2006. Approval of the General Plan was achieved by January 2008, but proclamation has been delayed due to differing views on the required level of infrastructural upgrading, between AngloGold Ashanti and the Council of Matlosana and Merafong. The project is scheduled for completion by 2010, at an estimated cost of R60.86 million.

During 1993, AngloGold Ashanti together with the National Union of Mineworkers entered into an agreement regarding the co-management of the residences whereby participative committees, known as Board of Governors or Senators, have been introduced.

AngloGold Ashanti’s mines in the Vaal and West Wits areas offer employees family housing and private rooms, and plans are in place to fast-track the facilities available, to meet the growing need by employees for family accommodation. As part of this process, the various housing initiatives aim to address the quality of life of employees, their health and wellbeing, as well as supporting the operational needs of the company. AngloGold Ashanti participates in the Integrated Development Plans of the local municipalities to ensure that housing and accommodation needs are identified, and that government is able to make the necessary resources available to execute their responsibilities. AngloGold Ashanti has embarked on numerous projects in the past, through joint ventures with developers and with local authorities, in areas such as Kanana, Wedela, and Matjhabeng. The company has also donated land through a bidding process, aimed at facilitating local developer involvement in tackling housing shortages in urban areas near our operations. The long-term objective is for these communities to remain viable and sustainable long after AngloGold Ashanti has left the areas following mineral depletion.

The key objectives for the near future are for AngloGold Ashanti to:

• speed up home ownership by constantly improving or redevelopment of new Home Ownership Models;
• increase formalisation;
• initiate community re-integration programmes;
• manage the rising demand for residences; and
• enter into joint ventures with public and private partners in an attempt to source sufficient accommodation for its employees.