Category: Lonmin plc

Campaign Plough Back the Fruits

Watching the Lonmin-BASF supply chain

The campaign aims to support the Marikana people´s fight for justice. The European initiators of the campaign are a network of independent German, Swiss and Austrian NGOs and activists. In 2014/2015 the European initiators started to join forces with partners in South Africa. Since then the campaign has been collaborating with the families of victims of the Marikana massacre, supporters and NGOs and strives to strengthen alliances with mineworker communities in Marikana, activists, researchers, NGOs and progressive unions in South Africa as well as in Europe. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/campaign-plough-back-the-fruits/

“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/

Lonmin’s profits rise as Marikana community continues to suffer

Protesting Lonmin AGM

Lonmin announces solid financial performance ahead of drawn out takeover while refusing to secure 12,600 mine workers’ jobs

At Lonmin’s annual general meeting on 25 March 2019, while protesters gathered outside, the London-listed company announced profits of US$100 million. It spoke of preserving its assets rather than investing in the company ahead of a takeover bid by the gold mining giant Sibanye-Stillwater.

Lonmin executives urged shareholders to back the bid by the South African corporation, in a meeting that would have been focused on salvaging profit and shares, were it not for an alliance of Marikana solidarity groups present. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/lonmins-profits-rise-as-marikana-community-continues-to-suffer/

“Amandla! Awethu! Power to the People!”

South African delegation held Lonmin to account for its role in the Marikana Massacre

In March 2018, an international alliance of non-governmental organisations put pressure on British-South African mining company Lonmin, the world´s third largest platinum producer. Five years after the massacre of British-South African platinum mining company Lonmin has not fulfilled its obligations.

Since Bishop Jo Seoka attended the Lonmin AGM in January 2017 little progress has been made at Marikana, despite promises made by the company. Therefore, Bishop Seoka and two community representatives came to London to present their demands to the Lonmin management.

Before the AGM a picket was co-organised by Marikana Miners Solidarity Campaign and Decolonising Environmentalism. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/amandla-awethu-power-to-the-people/

Video: Lonmin! We demand justice for Marikana


Protest on March 15, 2018, in London

At the Annual General Meeting of the British-South African mining company Lonmin, our alliance of South African and European NGOs protested and called upon the company to provide decent living conditions for its miners. The participants of our delegation from South Africa, civil rights activist Thumeka Magwangqana from the women’s organization Sikhale Sonke (“We cry together”), Bishop Johannes Seoka and attorney Andries Nkome, ask Lonmin to take responsibility.

They demand from Lonmin to pay reparations to all dependents of the deceased mineworkers and the injured and arrested workers who survived the Marikana Massacre on 16 August 2012. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/video-lonmin-we-demand-justice-for-marikana/