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Fin24 user Bryan Coetzee gives his views on the underlying causes of the ongoing platinum strike.
He was responding to a call for debate on the platinum miners strike by labour columnist Terry Bell in his weekly Labour Wrap. He writes:
Hi Terry
I am a business consultant working the past few years in the mining sector of the Kathu area (mines such as Kumba and Arm (Khumani) in the Northern Cape).
I consult for the SLP projects and other areas relating to the DMR to ensure the mines are spending on developing these communities ... so that one day, unlike my home mining town of Kimberley, these areas will continue to grow and develop.
Perhaps I am biased towards the entrepreneurial trend, for which I have a great passion, but my sentiments are very strong in this regard.
The problem with the mining business model as a whole is flawed, and we are beginning to reap the fruits for not changing in this day and age.
Making a difference
Here is what I mean:
The mining business model as a whole does not fit or promote people to think and contribute and be part of something they believe in. I hate to say this, but I don't see any real significant short term solution to these wage disputes.
Sure they may get to some agreement shortly, but they are not answering a very deep personal question that every individual wants to hear. The question of ... am I making a difference in this world? Am I playing my part in history? Will the world remember me?
I speak from experience that not many people value the different characteristics of the generational gaps. The early baby-boomers were content with working hard for a salary. Not so for the Gen Y's of which EFF leader Julius Malema is a very good example.
This generation of firebrands fuel the masses, they prefer to go against the grain. I know this because having worked with over 3 000 entrepreneurs the past 12 years, I have seen many differences between the youth of our day and the older generations.
Many misunderstand this generation and often interpret or confuse this with disrespect or arrogance and may I add this is cross-culture ... black, white and coloured all think this way.
The real issue
What am I trying say?
The root of these strikes cannot be resolved indefinitely around the negotiation tables. People need to help these communities answer the real 'cry' within.
For too long the private sector has failed to see this, and sadly also up to now the only alternative for the workers has been the unions, which has in turn kept or fuelled the very problem of addressing these issues and finding a solution on such a mass scale.
Unbundling has never been seen as an option because the very strength of a strike is found in numbers.
I believe the root is more than just money that people want. It is a better life and not just any life - a life that matters and contributes, a life that can buy his/her parents a new car or pay for their first house outside the confines of a shanty and women who want their kids to get a better education than they did.
A life that is called to make money, which is actually a means to an end ... that of helping others around them. Isn't this in all of us?
Sure this may not be in the hearts of everyone, but the communities that I have had the privilege of working with, whose hearts have not been crushed or raised with some form of vengeance, have shared this sentiment over and over.
I acknowledge that I am by no means an authority on this subject, but why my convictions are so strong that I too am a Gen Y. I share with so many my age, a different world view to our current leaders and decision-makers.
Outsourcing model
For this reason I got into entrepreneurship in the first place. I left the old 'brontosaurus' type business model, the corporate ladder for something better. The only difference between me and the youths and elders on the mines is that I had a very good education and had the tools and means to start up a business of my own.
My humble opinion Terry, is that the mines need to break down this large work force - this mass of clones - and differentiate everywhere possible. Celebrate that staff are first people. They are unique and actually have far more to contribute than what most may think. Change must start with identity. Over time create departments that can be separately owned business models and yes ... owned by the workers themselves.
Sure this does not happen overnight and with this brings many other challenges, but at least this is a battle that can easily be won and not fought on a sinking ship.
In the past 2 years, I have attempted this very model in one of our projects so I speak from a position of experience. We have by no means reached what we set out to do, but have been able to be part of one of the first successful stories where ownership has been successfully transferred to an outsourcing service provider on one of the larger mines.
There is much that must and can be learned from this real life case study but that's not why I am writing to you.
I write as I feel strongly that if the private sector does not embrace this reality and change or at least start changing their approach, then things will only get worse. Strikes will only grow in numbers and revolts will follow.
People in key positions in the private sector need to surround themselves with people from another generation. A blend of the young and old should occupy these boardrooms even more so since we are in this social and technological age, which as my dad says, "keeps changing so fast" that by the time he understands, his son has to explain the new upgrade again.
Smaller business models, fuelled by entrepreneurship, are the future.
When five zealot pilots took down the twin towers of the strongest nation in the world in 2001, I was 20 years old. I could not but help see the parallel to business.
As a new nation (both public and private sector) we owe it to ourselves to write history 'the new way' as opposed to 'but we have never done it this way'.
Kind regards
Bryan Coetzee
P.S. Thanks for all the good articles.
- Fin24
Have something on your mind? Tell us and you could get published.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
He was responding to a call for debate on the platinum miners strike by labour columnist Terry Bell in his weekly Labour Wrap. He writes:
Hi Terry
I am a business consultant working the past few years in the mining sector of the Kathu area (mines such as Kumba and Arm (Khumani) in the Northern Cape).
I consult for the SLP projects and other areas relating to the DMR to ensure the mines are spending on developing these communities ... so that one day, unlike my home mining town of Kimberley, these areas will continue to grow and develop.
Perhaps I am biased towards the entrepreneurial trend, for which I have a great passion, but my sentiments are very strong in this regard.
The problem with the mining business model as a whole is flawed, and we are beginning to reap the fruits for not changing in this day and age.
Making a difference
Here is what I mean:
The mining business model as a whole does not fit or promote people to think and contribute and be part of something they believe in. I hate to say this, but I don't see any real significant short term solution to these wage disputes.
Sure they may get to some agreement shortly, but they are not answering a very deep personal question that every individual wants to hear. The question of ... am I making a difference in this world? Am I playing my part in history? Will the world remember me?
I speak from experience that not many people value the different characteristics of the generational gaps. The early baby-boomers were content with working hard for a salary. Not so for the Gen Y's of which EFF leader Julius Malema is a very good example.
This generation of firebrands fuel the masses, they prefer to go against the grain. I know this because having worked with over 3 000 entrepreneurs the past 12 years, I have seen many differences between the youth of our day and the older generations.
Many misunderstand this generation and often interpret or confuse this with disrespect or arrogance and may I add this is cross-culture ... black, white and coloured all think this way.
The real issue
What am I trying say?
The root of these strikes cannot be resolved indefinitely around the negotiation tables. People need to help these communities answer the real 'cry' within.
For too long the private sector has failed to see this, and sadly also up to now the only alternative for the workers has been the unions, which has in turn kept or fuelled the very problem of addressing these issues and finding a solution on such a mass scale.
Unbundling has never been seen as an option because the very strength of a strike is found in numbers.
I believe the root is more than just money that people want. It is a better life and not just any life - a life that matters and contributes, a life that can buy his/her parents a new car or pay for their first house outside the confines of a shanty and women who want their kids to get a better education than they did.
A life that is called to make money, which is actually a means to an end ... that of helping others around them. Isn't this in all of us?
Sure this may not be in the hearts of everyone, but the communities that I have had the privilege of working with, whose hearts have not been crushed or raised with some form of vengeance, have shared this sentiment over and over.
I acknowledge that I am by no means an authority on this subject, but why my convictions are so strong that I too am a Gen Y. I share with so many my age, a different world view to our current leaders and decision-makers.
Outsourcing model
For this reason I got into entrepreneurship in the first place. I left the old 'brontosaurus' type business model, the corporate ladder for something better. The only difference between me and the youths and elders on the mines is that I had a very good education and had the tools and means to start up a business of my own.
My humble opinion Terry, is that the mines need to break down this large work force - this mass of clones - and differentiate everywhere possible. Celebrate that staff are first people. They are unique and actually have far more to contribute than what most may think. Change must start with identity. Over time create departments that can be separately owned business models and yes ... owned by the workers themselves.
Sure this does not happen overnight and with this brings many other challenges, but at least this is a battle that can easily be won and not fought on a sinking ship.
In the past 2 years, I have attempted this very model in one of our projects so I speak from a position of experience. We have by no means reached what we set out to do, but have been able to be part of one of the first successful stories where ownership has been successfully transferred to an outsourcing service provider on one of the larger mines.
There is much that must and can be learned from this real life case study but that's not why I am writing to you.
I write as I feel strongly that if the private sector does not embrace this reality and change or at least start changing their approach, then things will only get worse. Strikes will only grow in numbers and revolts will follow.
People in key positions in the private sector need to surround themselves with people from another generation. A blend of the young and old should occupy these boardrooms even more so since we are in this social and technological age, which as my dad says, "keeps changing so fast" that by the time he understands, his son has to explain the new upgrade again.
Smaller business models, fuelled by entrepreneurship, are the future.
When five zealot pilots took down the twin towers of the strongest nation in the world in 2001, I was 20 years old. I could not but help see the parallel to business.
As a new nation (both public and private sector) we owe it to ourselves to write history 'the new way' as opposed to 'but we have never done it this way'.
Kind regards
Bryan Coetzee
P.S. Thanks for all the good articles.
- Fin24
Have something on your mind? Tell us and you could get published.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
