Honour social responsibility — Mining companies told
The Chairman of AngloGold Ashanti, Mr Sipho Pityana, has called on stakeholders in the mining industry to strive to honour their social responsibility without undermining corporate business goals.
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He stressed that riches that abounded in natural resources were beneficial only after they had been extracted and made physically tangible.
He said frank conversation about responsible mining and shared value was needed, as well as business competitiveness and social and community wellbeing, which were interdependent and not conflicting principles.
Mr Pityana made the call when he delivered the annual Kwame Nkrumah Business in Africa lecture at the University of Ghana last Thursday. It was on the theme: “Africa’s Resources: From Curse to Development Catalyst.”
Appropriate extraction of mineral
“It is no secret that riches in the ground only create wealth for society when they are extracted in an appropriate manner and this requires, among other things, an enabling policy, transparent and accountable governance, competitive investment capital, and the appropriate human capital,” Mr Pityana said.
He said the economic development and upliftment of Ghana and Africa hinged on the ability of the mining industry to create an enabling environment that would make the industry flourish.
To be able to do that, he said “it falls on leaders, be they elected political officials, company management or labour and community leaders, to understand the constant trade-offs and accommodation required to fashion profitable outcomes that can in turn, lead to equitable development outcomes.”
Core values
Mr Pityana said the corporate values of AngloGold Ashanti demanded that they treat each other with dignity and respect, value diversity, mine responsibly and to aspire to leave communities better off.
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To be able to achieve that, he said there was the need to “stay focused on ensuring equitable outcomes both for today and for tomorrow. In this way, I do believe that we can be the development catalyst that we aspire to be.”
Collaboration between academia and business
The acting Director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS), Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy, said the AngloGold Ashanti lectures on Business in Africa was one of the innovative programmes developed jointly by the IAS and AngloGold Ashanti, in furtherance of the search for fruitful collaborations between academia and business.
“What we sought to do is to create a platform to highlight not only the diversity, resilience and innovation of Africa businesses in Africa, but also provide us in the academia, an opportunity to take up critical engagement with industry, especially in this day and age where business is being called upon to account for its stewardship of the world’s and, particularly, African resources,” she said.