Category: Campaign Plough Back The Fruits

“If it is committed to cleaner supply chains, BASF has a commitment to these people”: Speech by Niren Tolsi


My name is Niren Tolsi, and I am a journalist from South Africa.

Since the massacre in Marikana in August 2012, which left 34 men dead, photojournalist Paul Botes and I have documented what has happened to some of the mine-workers who survived that fatal day and the forty-four families who lost loved ones at Marikana — a project we called After Marikana.

Through this project, we aimed to investigate the real cost of the Marikana massacre to families, to communities and — through this microscope of the intimate — this strange new South Africa that Marikana has ushered in by echoing the bloody massacres of our apartheid past. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/if-it-is-committed-to-cleaner-supply-chains-basf-has-a-commitment-to-these-people-speech-by-niren-tolsi/

10 Years After The Marikana Massacre: Still No Justice

On August 16, the murdered South African miners will be remembered worldwide. Platinum importer BASF bears responsibility for human rights and environmental protection

Marikana Massacre (from left above): South African police with shot miner at Nkaneng Hill; a surviving miner, Mzoxolo Magidwana, speaks at the BASF AGM 2017; protest outside the Lonmin AGM 2018 in London; protesting South African women in Marikana.

On 16 August 2012, 34 miners were shot dead at the Marikana platinum mine in South Africa. Plough Back the Fruits (PBTF), the South African-European campaign, reminds on the 10th anniversary of the massacre that miners are still imprisoned and many survivors are still waiting for the promised compensation and an official apology from those responsible. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/campaign-plough-back-the-fruits/10-years-after-the-marikana-massacre-still-no-justice/

Would it have made a difference? Marikana, BASF and the Supply Chain Act

From 2023, legislation will rule how BASF must meet its own human rights due diligence obligations. Would the Supply Chain Act have helped BASF respond more seriously to the apparent abuses at its then largest platinum supplier, Lonmin, after the Marikana massacre nine years ago? The answer to this question exposes the advantages, but also the shortcomings, of the bill currently being debated in German parliament.

By Tilman Massa, Ethical Shareholders Germany

German companies have had long enough to prove that they voluntarily comply with UN standards on respecting human rights in their supply chains. After it finally became clear last year that over 80 percent were not even close to doing so, the German government drew the consequences and cleared the way for a legal regulation. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/would-it-have-made-a-difference-marikana-basf-and-the-supply-chain-act/

No effect without liability

Protest for transparency and respect for human rights in supply chains on the occasion of the BASF AGM 2020

For too long, companies such as BASF have been half-heartedly complying with their human rights due diligence, because they did not have to fear any consequences. Now various initiatives for legal regulation at international, European and national level are entering decisive phases. The question of liability will show whether companies or civil society have been able to enforce their demands.

The German-African Business Association knows exactly which German ministry is best placed to assert its interests. It is not the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AA) – which might be obvious for a foreign trade association –, but the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/campaign-plough-back-the-fruits/no-effect-without-liability/

“We have hope”: Speech from Jo Seoka

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to participate in your AGM. I am Johannes Seoka, former Bishop of the Anglican Church in Diocese of Pretoria in the Anglican Church of South Africa for 18 years. I am here representing and speaking on behalf of the Plough Back the Fruits Campaign constituted by South African, European and British network.

Last year Mr Bock cynically asked me not to come back this year. In fact, this is the major reason of being here today. I must say that though I was offended by his attitude, I decided to be forgiving and to be optimistic about our relationship for the sake of those who have entrusted me with the responsibility to speak on their behalf. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/we-have-hope-speech-from-jo-seoka/

“Entangled history of violent exploitation of nature and labour in Africa”: speech from Daniel Selwyn

Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Selwyn and I’m here to represent the London-based Marikana Solidarity Collective, which includes London Mining Network, War on Want, the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum, the Marikana Miners Solidarity Campaign, and the collective Decolonising Environmentalism of which I am a member. Before I ask some questions about your primary platinum supplier Lonmin, I would like to pay my respects to Bishop Jo Seoka and Andries Nkome here today, who have been such tireless advocates for the Marikana community, as well as to those who cannot be here with us today: from the women of Sikhala Sonke and those left widowed by the massacre, to the mineworkers injured, illegally arrested and still imprisoned, to the millions of Africans who been murdered for the accumulation of profit over centuries. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/entangled-history-of-violent-exploitation-of-land-and-raw-materials-in-africa-speech-from-daniel-selwyn/

BASF: Massive job losses at platinum supplier Lonmin in South Africa

  • Notorious mining company Sibanye-Stillwater wants to take over Lonmin
  • Threat of massive job losses exacerbates precarious living conditions in Marikana
  • International Campaign calls on BASF to agree steps to improve living and working conditions across its supply chain

At BASF’s Annual General Meeting on May 3 in Mannheim, the South African-European campaign Plough Back the Fruits will condemn the German chemical company for neglecting human rights in its business relations with South Africa.

Almost seven years after the Marikana Massacre, where over a hundred miners were shot by the police, killing 34, working and living conditions remain unacceptable at Lonmin, BASF’s most important platinum supplier. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/basf-mass-job-losses-at-platinum-supplier-lonmin-in-south-africa/

African raw materials for Germany. BASF as an example of supply chain responsibility

Event with Bishop Jo Seoka 2 May 2019, 7pm at VHS Heidelberg

In 2012 over 3000 South African miners went on strike in Marikana. The mining company Lonmin has been refusing to comply with the binding social plan for years. But the strike was brutally ended by the police and 34 workers died in a hail of bullets. BASF buys a large part of the platinum extracted in Marikana to use as catalysts, but rejects responsibility for the strike and its consequences, although it was fully aware of the workers’ situation – this was the only way platinum could be so cheap. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/african-raw-materials-for-germany-basf-as-an-example-of-supply-chain-responsibility/