How do we account for foreign firms that are successful in politically “risky” countries? While traditional political risk indices may tell us why a country is considered a difficult operating environment, they tell us very little about why some foreign firms are nevertheless able to operate successfully in such countries over long periods of time. In fact, risk indices by their very nature make “success” almost impossible to capture due to their sole focus on “host country” behavior. Rather, as this thesis argues, the political risk is in the relationship between the firm and a series of stakeholders within a given country, not the country itself. This is a thesis of deviant cases: it holds the “successful relationship” between a foreign firm and its stakeholders as the constant dependent variable in the “significantly risky” country of Kazakhstan. Success is defined as the ability of each actor to pursue its own goals to a self-satisfactory degree, with the resources an actor mobilizes to achieve those goals and the constraints that restrict those resources as the independent variables. Three self-contained cases of “successful” foreign mining firms operating in Kazakhstan are analyzed here to determine the distinct causal pathways that led each firm to seeming “success”; the thesis then pivots to a between-subjects examination aimed at drawing out the common themes among the three different foreign firms. Within international relations theory, the relationship between the foreign firm and its stakeholders is considered here as a window into the intersection of the international political economy and the domestic political economy of a country in transition, but critically, allotting agents and structures equal ontological status. Thus the ultimate aim of this investigation is to enrich our understanding of social behavior – here, co-existence – within the context of the agent- structure debate in larger social scientific inquiry.

"Mining operations" and "mining" are defined in s 1 of the Income Tax Act (ITA). A concept that is of great significance to this definition is the matter of when a mineral is won and the related question of when does the mining process end and the process of manufacture commences. Case law has not established a definitive point that can be used by the mining taxpayer to determine where the mining process ends for income tax purposes. The Supreme Court of Appeal was presented with the perfect opportunity in the Foskor1 case to clearly define the boundaries between these processes. Unfortunately, the court did not seize this opportunity to provide legal certainty. The significance of the distinction lies in the fact that a mining taxpayer is allowed to claim accelerated capital allowances. The objective of these allowances is to provide tax relief to the mining taxpayer taking the immense risk of investing billions of rands in capital expenditure. The capital expenditure incurred will also result in direct foreign investment. This in turn will result in economic growth and job creation. Currently, there is no legal certainty as to which processes will qualify as mining operations for income tax purposes. This may result in mining taxpayers being hesitant to incur capital expenditure as the risk relating to a project would have increased. The accelerated capital allowances may therefore not serve their intended purpose. The gross domestic product (GDP) contribution from gold mining has been decreasing in the last number of years, but this decrease has to a large extent been offset by an increase in the downstream or beneficiated minerals industry. This industry has also been identified by Government as a growth sector. The downstream or beneficiated mineral industry may not be catered for in the current definition of "mining operations" and "mining" and may therefore not qualify for beneficial tax allowances. It is therefore proposed that the term "won" as used in the definition of "mining operations" and "mining" should be defined in s 1 of the ITA as follows: A mineral is "won" when all the requisite and necessary processes, including, amongst other things, refinement, beneficiation, smelting, separation, have been undertaken to the mineral to render it saleable in an open and general market. This extension will provide legal certainty to a mining taxpayer and will ensure that South Africa obtains direct foreign investment and maximum value for its minerals. This will contribute to economic growth for South Africa's developing economy and result in job creation.

Thesis (M.COM. (Accounting)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017 / Corporate environmental investments have traditionally been deemed to be an unnecessary cost to companies because of perceived or no significant return on investment. However, recent literature is highlighting financial benefits accruing from environmental investments. This study investigates the relationship between corporate environmental investment and shareholder value. The study uses the stakeholder and legitimacy theory to define the company‟s engagement with its external society and environment. From that perspective, the study examines the effect of corporate environmental investment on carbon emissions, hazardous solid waste disposal and company share price. Panel data multiple regression was used to investigate the relationship between the variables under study. Findings show a significant positive relationship between investment in carbon emissions and share price while there is an insignificant negative relationship between investment in hazardous solid waste and share price. The study contributes to the notion that reducing the environmental footprint generates positive shareholder gains by bringing new evidence from the South African mining industry. Further studies can be performed with company profitability as a measure of financial performance and further in a different sector such as manufacturing.

This paper explores the conflicts of interest present in science policy and how claims being made for evidence based science can be used to suppress critical social science research. The specific case presented concerns the attempts to ban and censor my work criticising the economics of carbon emissions trading while I was working for the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. The role of management and the Science Minister are documented through their own public statements. The case raises general issues about the role of epistemic communities in the production of knowledge, the potential for manipulation of information under the guise of quality control and the problems created by claiming a fact-value dichotomy in the science-policy interface. The implications go well beyond just climate change research and challenge how public policy is being formulated in modern industrial societies where scientific knowledge and corporate interests are closely intertwined. (author's abstract) / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Resource control as a form of community participation in the mineral economy has gained much recognition. One prevailing argument is that direct control of natural resources by local communities is an important precondition for equitable utilisation of the natural resource wealth, peaceful co-existence between mining corporations and indigenous communities, and congenial relations between local communities and the state. Studies have also shown that the absence of direct community control of mineral wealth remains a major factor in the communal resistance and socio-political conflict witnessed in the natural resource-endowed regions of countries such as Nigeria, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, little is known about mineral resource control at the community level. Does community control necessarily translate to equity? How does local involvement in the mobilisation of mining royalties benefit different segments of the community? Indeed, how do different segments of the community “control” the wealth? What is the specific model adopted to engender broad-based community participation in the utilisation of mineral wealth – and does it matter? These theoretical and practical questions were the impetus for undertaking this study in the Royal Bafokeng and Bakgatla Ba Kgafela – two platinum-rich ‘traditional’ communities in South Africa’s North West Province that have significant control over platinum resources in their territories. Utilising ethnographic data collected in the two study communities in 2008 and 2009, the thesis examines the character of community participation in platinum wealth utilisation; specifically, the conditions under which community participation promotes or hinders sustainable community development. The analysis uses a “three-dimensional participation ladder” conceptual scheme, based in part on Sherry Arnstein’s (1969) “ladder of citizen participation” and subsequent typologies of participation. Among the key findings of the thesis are that despite observed benefits, the interface of resource wealth and community development is fraught with tokenistic participation, elite-targeted grassroots anger, and local tensions – all linked to the contradictory nature of participation. The thesis further reveals that in some instances the challenge of platinum wealth-engendered community development tends to undermine existing customary and democratic spaces for participation, and that this is exacerbated by community-level issues such as poverty and inequality. The findings of the study compel a shift of analytical focus from conflict as an epiphenomenon of collective community exclusion and deprivation (as in the case of many natural-rich countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere), to conflict as also resulting from collective community inclusion (in natural resource utilisation). At the policy level, the study generates insights that will, hopefully, assist mineral resource-endowed countries, such as South Africa, in dealing with the challenge of developing appropriate policy frameworks for regulating business and social partnerships between local communities and mining corporations, and within resource-rich communities themselves.

M.Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The majority of mine health and safety authorities around the world agree that the quality of safety standards is of increasing importance to the mining industry across the world (Kleyn & du Plessis 2016:309). Mining companies in many countries such as New Zealand, (an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean), Australia, South Africa and China have taken up the challenges of guaranteeing liability and improving performance of the safety and health of their workers, aware that many workers are injured, if not fatally. These incidents result in production loss. This study provides not only an opportunity to evaluate the status of the safety control measures of the work system in a mining company, but also enables management to pinpoint the causes of poor safety performance and implement efforts that ensure safety improvement. The primary objectives of this study were to examine factors influencing the adherence and employee perceptions towards safety control measures in a mining company. Furthermore, the governments in many countries have tried to implement legislation to try to curb the scourge of industrial accidents. Safety disclosures of the annual reports from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) of South African mining organisations, discloses 10 major mining accidents that happened in 2015 at Northern Cape mining companies. Six of these accidents occurring from a small mining sector and four from a large mining sector, except previous year’s safety records as detailed in this study. A quantitative approach was adopted for the study. The data were collected using a sample of 200 participants in which a survey questionnaire was administered to permanent mine employees and full time contractors in the mine. A simple sampling technique was used and data were then analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25.0 to formulate frequency tables and descriptive analysis graphs. Furthermore, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were utilised to analyse the data and examine significant differences between employee perceptions and attitudes towards safety control measures, age and length of service (Willemse 2009:118-121). The results reveal that although the mine was considered compliant, with its employees showing a positive attitude towards safety control measures, ANOVA revealed different perceptions of employees based on their age and years of experience. However, no differences were found in relation to gender and occupation. Based on the findings, this study further recommends future studies to be conducted in order to explore the effectiveness of implementing an internal system of self-evaluation as a starting point in any safety improvement process. An effective system of internal self-evaluation will trademark the mining sector internationally and improve workers’ safety by improving effectiveness and assurance of the control measures and the level of control performance criteria. The system should create the awareness of adherence to safety control measures and deal with employee perception towards safety adherence in mining. In addition it should be a system that ensures a structured and standardised approach to learning from incidents and that all necessary steps are followed to safeguard against repeats of incidents and accidents through an effective incident investigation process (Van den Berg 2014:11). The findings of the study revealed that the leadership in the mine has a strong, positive and significant influence on the performance of safety. In this regard, this study recommends that an effective employee engagement system to be developed and that mine managers establish a safety control charter that must be understood by the mine workers, develop a code of ethics that requires ethical and honest behaviour from all employees in order to improve safety performance and learn from these accomplishments. Mine workers will take their cue from the attitude and example displayed by management, therefore, it is recommended that mine management develop an organisational culture, which assigns authority and responsibility to employees and organises and develops employees with direction provided by management that determines the type of culture in that mine. To minimise or reduce the risk of health exposure of each activity as highlighted under Regulation 9 of the Mine Health and Safety Act (29 of 1996), it is recommended that mine manager’s enforce the use of protective equipment. The leadership and human resources, mine workers and all persons who may be affected by the mining activities in the surrounding area of operation need to be aware of the factors that can impact their well-being. The study also presented managers, mine owner and other decision makers within the mining company with important insight on key areas of factors that may require particular attention in order to enhance their operational strategies towards zero harm in the mine.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2016 / The purpose of this research is to identify and outline the sustainable funding models for BEE transactions in the South African mining industry. It is proposed that from the early 2000s to 2014 the sustainability of BEE funding models was driven by regulatory pressure. In the absence of regulatory pressure, there would be a need to develop alternative funding models. The study uses a quantitative research methodology by examining the frequency of use of various funding models, the impact of regulatory interventions and use of various funding sources on the sustainability of funding models, regression analysis and significance testing. The research results show that the percentage of third party finance in funding structures has a negative correlation with the success of BEE transactions. Vendor finance shows a positive correlation with the sustainability of transactions, more so above 60% in the funding structures. Equity finance has a positive impact on the success of transactions from as low as 20% in the funding structures. An ideal funding structure would consist of the following funding sources:  Third party: Vendor: Equity = 40%: 20%: 40%, in the case of a BEE company that has equity available and  Third party: Vendor = <40%: > 60%, where no equity is available to BEE entrepreneurs. In the absence of BEE laws third party finance will dominate funding of empowerment transactions. Funding models based on third party finance must rely more on cash flow based payments rather than dividend payments to service debt.

M. Tech. (Department of Labour Relations Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / In the decade before 2005, South African organisations have had to cope with an ever-increasing rate of local and global changes. There have been considerable and ongoing socio-political changes, resulting from new Government regulations. Most organisations have experienced some type of downturn, whether due to external business factors or poor internal performance. A typical response to organisational decline is retrenchment. Retrenchment is attributed to cyclical downturns, market losses or other economic factors, which oblige the employer to reduce the labour force numbers. Though there are so many ways of responding to organisational failure, this study focused only on retrenchment. A number of psychologists and human sciences researchers have studied the results of job loss due to retrenchment. Retrenchment brings loss of skills, loss of morale and commitment, as well as physical and mental health degradation, including stress that results in employees withdrawing physically and emotionally. The main purpose of this study was to outline the employees’ perceptions of the effects of retrenchment on job stress and organisational commitment in a mining company. The research methodology used in this study is a combination of a literature review and an empirical study. The probability sampling technique, which entails using simple random sampling, was used to select the sample of the study. The primary data were collected using a questionnaire. The measuring instrument contained 43 items. The measuring instrument was pilot-tested with 50 respondents three weeks before the main survey; the questionnaire was self-administered to the participants. For the main survey, data from 294 respondents were collected and analysed. Participants in the study involved surface employees, including management, administrators, engineers and artisans. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the various sections of the measuring instrument were computed to establish construct validity. Content validity was ascertained by pre-testing the questionnaire with the employees in the mine in question. Correlations were used to establish convergent validity of the constructs. Convergent validity was assessed to measure the degree of linear association of variables using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Discriminant validity was achieved by using regression analysis to show items loaded onto different factors in various sections which had more than one factor. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics on the demographic information of respondents. The results were also interpreted through correlation and regression analysis. The results showed that the effects of retrenchment did not have a negative impact on job stress (time stress and anxiety). This may be due to the mine in question planning and consulting with the employees prior to the retrenchment process. The results also showed that job stress (time stress and anxiety) is negatively associated with organisational commitment. Subsequent to these findings, it is recommended that employees (survivors) be updated on their future in the company in question. This could be done through regular workshops and counselling of employees. In order to motivate and engage employees, and thereby contribute to employee commitment, it was also recommended that organisations create open, supportive and fair organisational and team cultures, and ensure jobs are clearly aligned with organisational goals and have appropriate levels of autonomy, support and career development. Given that job satisfaction plays a huge role in organisational commitment, it was further recommended that managers need to actively improve their organisation’s job satisfaction to employees in order to achieve a higher level of organisational commitment. The study concludes by recommending that communication between employees and management should take place on a regular basis which can serve as a fundamental tool to retrenchment in the following manner:  Survivors will feel more committed to the organisation when the basis of retrenchment addresses the circumstances in the external environment, rather than the enrichment of shareholders or top management.  Communicating a clear vision of how retrenchment will benefit stakeholders, increases commitment since survivors can see a clear future for the organisation.  When survivors are treated with dignity and respect, they will feel more committed to the organisation because they feel appreciated.

Climate change has come to be understood as a deleterious phenomenon, which threatens business, society and ecological systems, thus making it imperative to understand its impact on human, social and economic activities as well as the impact of these activities on climate change. Against this background, this research sought to determine climate change intervention strategies in the mining supply chain in general, specifically focussing on opencast mining contracting and plant hire companies’ practices. This focus on the mining industry was driven by its importance in South Africa and globally, despite its significant direct and indirect contribution to climatic changes. The mixed-methods multiple case study focused on the climate change management of the Mutual Construction Company Group of Companies (MCCGC), an open cast toll mining firm and equipment supplier. Limited to two sites, Pilanesberg Platinum Mines (PPM) and Tharisa Minerals (Tharisa) Mines, the researcher gathered data through interviews, questionnaires, observations and document review. Data was analysed through deductive content analysis. The research made three major findings: (i) the MCCGC, like its principals PPM and Tharisa, does not have an explicit climate change management strategy. Instead, climate change is managed indirectly through implicit strategies seeking to manage environment, health and safety concerns of the mines, (ii) as a contractor, the MCCGC has had to adopt PPM and Tharisa’s implicit approach to climate change management strategies to meet contractual obligations, instead of an explicit approach and, (iii) the MCCGC and its principals’ commitment to environment, health and safety management, and implicitly climate change management, is not mere rhetoric but is being put into practice. The research concluded that MCCGC’s lack of expressed climate change management intentions and practices exposed the firm to climate change risks, most notably financial risks and reputation risks. Financial risks arise from possible ex post climate change liability. In addition, MCCGC is risking its contract tenures, particularly if the two mines change ownership and the new owners insist on an explicit rather than implied climate change strategy with all its suppliers. Reputational risks arise from the possible failure to attract new clientele and investors who may perceive MCCGC as a risky partner, due to an inept climate change intervention strategy / College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)