Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Implications for Governance: the Case of Mining in South Africa

This paper investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its implications for governance by means of a case study of mining, with an analysis of global debates, national discourse and policy, and local manifestations. It includes company-level analysis within a political economy framework, investigating CSR in terms of the discourse, practices, and social relations that define it. The World Summit on Sustainable Development is used to illustrate two opposing views of CSR, and a synthesis model is suggested, emphasising the role of government in CSR. At the national level, the dominant South African interpretation of CSR as strategic philanthropy is described, with a few, foreign-listed companies dominating the national discourse, and widespread concerns that CSR is primarily about ‘greenwash.’ Currently, companies’ market-based incentives for CSR are overlain by the South African government’s imperative of black economic empowerment, meant to redress the economic exclusion of blacks during apartheid. The new South African mining dispensation illustrates that government intervention and negotiated policy-making are crucial elements of CSR. Finally, case studies of six companies active in the Rustenburg area underscore the impression that traditional interpretations of CSR have not significantly dealt with the social impacts of business practice. The new mining dispensation, complemented by local pressures and international market incentives, is bringing about the most significant changes yet in company management structures. Companies are still faced with important challenges in integrating CSR into core business strategy. They will also need to support capacity building in local government in order to address community concerns and improve local development planning. The conclusions highlight the need to define CSR broadly, with an important role for government. 1 This paper provides an overview of my PhD research conducted through the University of East Anglia (UEA), and enabled by the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the Harry Crossley Foundation. The research has been guided and supported by my supervisors, Tim O’Riordan and Simon Gerrard (UEA), and David Fig (University of the Witwatersrand). I am also grateful to Nicola Acutt, Andries Bezuidenhout, Paul Kapelus, and Sanjeev Khagram for their help and guidance, including their contribution to joint papers, as well as many other friends and colleagues here in Johannesburg. Finally, I am grateful for the generosity shown by interviewees and others involved in CSR and mining in South Africa.