The mining industry must work harder on implementing human rights programmes to prevent the exploitation of unhappy communities for narrow self-defeating motives, Minerals Council South Africa senior executive Tebello Chabana commented during a Human Rights Dialogue on March 17. He noted that South African communities have been “stranded by failing and failed local governments”, which has created a “hotbed for discontent that is easily stoked by unscrupulous third parties”.
The growing use of surveillance technologies, drones and wearables have serious implications for employees’ and individuals’ rights – to privacy, for one – which civil society and the private sector have yet to fully explore, diversified major Anglo American’s international, government and sustainability relations group head Froydis Cameron-Johansson has said. Speaking during a Human Rights Dialogue hosted by the Minerals Council South Africa on March 17, she outlined themes and trends that had emerged post-Covid, including the restriction of civic freedoms, violence and harassment, low-carbon transition risks, corporate accountability and litigation, increasing expectations, labour rights, and technology and human rights.