BEE Blowout

For the benefit of the readers who do not have access to the SAfrican current affairs TV programme “Carte Blanche” presented on the local Mnet, here is a another BEE rape and escape story that was aired on Sunday June 07, 2009.

What caught my eye, was a flash of the mine demonstrators walking in the view of the TV camera with a “black man” holding up a placard that stated “BEE SUCKS”

This self edited version of the TV interview, includes the subsequent interview with the current CEO, Ndaba Ntsele – who incriminates the white ex-CEO (it is not a black problem). Arrogance at its BEE best.

The management, of the mine, according to the reports, did not bother with maintenance of crucial equipment. Who knows, maybe they are making more money from the illegal tunnel rats, and therefore the mine is kept alive on a shoestring, for and by organized crime. In the wake of the recent debacle surrounding illegal mining in “working” mines, with the risk of stating the obvious, one can only deduce that the standard rules do not apply.- 3rd Ear

The mines, are after all, currently being pillaged by organized crime to the tune of R1bill a year at the current estimates. Who needs a listing on the JSE, when you can get the initial investors money, an extra 200mil form the IDC delist and continue to work the mines illegally without the interference of the MUN and the general rules and regulations. How can a mine that can't pay its employees, protect its underground assests? This is BEE at its best.

When the mines have become a successful criminal element target, it is the end. The big mining houses are sitting back and waiting for black SA to come begging and pleading with them to take over the mining operations from the failed attempts of local “businessmen.” (Sorry Sipho, ask the Chinese) It certainly appears as if the NUM is losing it grip and power. Eish, the plan. She is not coming together! How! From the people that brought you blood diamonds now the new improved blood gold.

To create a better understanding of the whole episode, I have included links to the main players, including our good friend, the coffee sipping, Porsche driving pseudo intellectual, never say die, our old friend Sipho Ngcobo.

“ I have a lot of problems with the concept of BEE. But I'm well aware that government's intentions were good when the concept was devised. But many white (racist-blame shifter) business leaders just don't see the big picture.” HUH! BEE according to Sipho.

THE SAD FAIRY TALE - BEE F*CKED UP AGAIN

A Free State mining town is in trouble. President Steyn mine in Welkom has come to a standstill, and so have the lives of over 3 000 of its miners. Pamodzi Gold's mines are in provisional liquidation and its dark days for the desperate families.

Maggie Griesel: "I have been raped in my life, but this is harder than coping with that." Maggie Griesel's husband David works as a winding engine driver at President Steyn shaft number 3. He is one of 13 000 employees on different Pamodzi mines who don't know where their next salary is coming from. Pamodzi Gold is broke.

Maggie: "There were days that he wanted to give up. But he still carried on, every day he went to work although there was no salary. (Dumb F*ck) Emotionally he is very strong but I can see it is breaking him down in silence." But David has been under strain for a while.

As Pamodzi Gold ran out of money so too did the funds for essential maintenance and safety. David's job was to lift miners and gold up and down the shafts several kilometres below ground. It's critical that his machines are perfectly maintained. (if you want loyalty, buy a dog)

David Griesel (Winding engine driver): "You sit here on a shift, this cage has two levels - 30 people on each level. That's 60 people! I take down 10 to 12 cages of people per day." (Without pay?)

But he showed us how time and again faults that were reported were ignored. These reports for the engineers just lie in a corner. (No engineers, no fetch)

David: "No one looks at them. That is our spare rope for this winder. This is our slack rope device. This is to tell you if the cage gets stuck during a trip. It's not in place. So I drive it, it gets stuck, I wouldn't know. It must legally be there." (Someone dies, boet, its your fault)

General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Frans Baleni, was shocked at the reports of conditions coming from his Pamodzi members. (As if you didn’t know)

Frans Baleni (General Secretary - National Union of Mineworkers): "We are very disappointed by Pamodzi. We just wonder how is it possible to run - to allow a company basically to run down to an extent that they had no money to buy explosives, they had no money to buy support?" (Run by tunnel rats)

Pamodzi Gold owns seven mines: One in the West rand, three in the East, one at Orkney and President Steyn in Welkom. In 2006 they listed and bragged they would be a million ounce gold producer, but this league is reserved for only the world's biggest gold companies. (Fed Joe Public bullsh*t-greed made me do it)

Barry Sergeant (Resources specialist - Moneyweb & Mineweb): "It's a magic thing to be a million ounce a year gold producer; it's got all kinds of status, charm and magic about it." Barry Seargent is the specialist mining journalist who lifted the lid on the Kebble saga. He spends his days crunching the numbers on mining companies and he says the Pamodzi story was just a million ounce fantasy!

Bongani Bingwa (Carte Blanche presenter): "Was it just about prestige?"Barry: "Ya absolutely. We have Anglo Gold Ashanti - one of the tier 1 companies in the world - (with) five million ounces a year production; Goldfields (with) three-and-a-half; Harmony Gold (with) about one-and-a-half... now we get guys out of nowhere producing a million ounces out of assets that have been stress-tested, squeezed over more than a century? Is this Disneyland?" (No boss its worse, it is South Africa-Mickey Mouse is in charge)

Their model was to acquire old mines, rehabilitate them and ride the wave of the gold boom. (And the dumb investors believed them)

But these deep mines require even deeper pockets. Instead Pamodzi spoke of cost-cutting. They were also locked into a loss-making hedge book deal. The combination was a recipe for disaster.

Sipho Ngcobo (Pro black Business columnist): "You go do this deal - a year later you can't even pay your water bills; a year later 15 000 employees are facing a risk of being unemployed; a year later the share price has crashed from R22 to 50cents." (Time to sell)

Business writer Sipho Ngcobo is passionate about black success and has watched with sadness as Pamodzi Gold unravels. (Asshole deluxe)

Sipho: "They owed suppliers around a billion rand, which was worth more than the company was actually valued at." (Me give credit- you no pay, me cry, me no give credit….)

The devastation has spread into unexpected quarters. At a primary school in Welkom a third of the parents can no longer afford school fees. No fees means a shortage of teachers. ( In God we trust-all others pay cash)

Bongani: "The mining industry has been hit hard by the global recession. There have been heavy job losses with more predicted but for the moment gold seems to be stable. So what has happened here at Pamodzi? Why has everything ground to halt?" (No more white business BEE gifts from the boss!- you are on your own)

Barry: "Pamodzi Gold's business model was flawed from day one. Fundamentally the capital investment has got to be appropriate to the levels of production that you are projecting and again, a million ounces a year the capital there, the implied capital is minimum one billion US dollars and it was never vaguely near the story." (So why did somebody not speak out?)

Today gold is trading around $980 an ounce, an environment in which making a profit in gold should have been easy. Barry: "A gold miner who can't make gold with these gold prices shouldn't be in the business." (Ah-SO Chinese smile darkie white)

Businesses that are making gold down in Welkom are the pawn shops which are overflowing with personal belongings.

Tired of empty promises the workers marched on the 8th April - their placards depicting their anger.

Bongani: "Is this BEE gone wrong?"

Sipho Ngcobo: "The CEO of the company has always been white so it is not a 'black' problem; I think it is just a mismanagement problem." (You underlying bastard)

A month ago CEO Peter Steenkamp resigned with immediate effect. (Rats, ships and things)Sipho: "I just want to know where was the board of Pamodzi holdings? Where was the leadership? Where were they (and) what were they doing? Who is accounting for this? Someone must account." (Rant and rave- comrades letting you down?)

The man at the helm is Ndaba Ntsele, chairman of Pamodzi Investment Holdings. Pamodzi Gold is one of the companies in the group. He was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2007. (Oh, don’t they just feel foolish-not doing my books again)

Sipho: "Ndaba is a very good business man, I think he was blindsided by all of this." (He was handed everything on a plate, Tokyo)

Bongani: "What's gone wrong at Pamodzi Gold?" (Ndaba- that’s what)

Ndaba: "There is nothing wrong at Pamodzi Gold, what we need is a capital injection." (Anything can be fixed with money-until it runs out)

Frans: "That is like a Medical Doctor who was busy with a patient in a theatre... walks out and saying to a family member, 'The operation was successful but unfortunately the patient has died.'" (You must unfortunately still pay for theater time)

Recently the employees discovered that disability insurance and their medical aid weren't being paid over either.

Frans: "The shocking thing, which I discovered, was that Pamodzi was not even paying insurance, which they are obliged by law to insure every worker in case of accident or disabling injury that worker can be compensated." (Who cares! Standard procedure)

Bongani: "How does an Entrepreneur of the Year preside over such a mess?" (Wrong choice of entrepreneur)

Ndaba: "Bongani, if you are afraid to solve a mess then you are not a great leader."

The mess started shortly after the listing. A mere five months after they bought the Welkom and Orkney mines Price Waterhouse state in Pamodzi's annual report: "Without this financing there is significant doubt about the group's ability to continue as a going concern." (And yet the IDC gave 200mil)

Bongani: "Your own auditors are saying, 'If you don't get a big enough cash injection your whole operation is in doubt.'"

Ndaba: "Bongani it is true - I have never denied that."

Bongani: "So this whole thing was smoke and mirrors, wasn't it?"

Ndaba: "Bongani, you see what, my friend, you are not a business person..."(And you are….?)

Bongani: "I admit..."

Ndaba: "You are a journalist..."

Bongani: "I am not a business person but I understand..."

Ndaba: "When we bought these mines, we had to have marbles. Not even the mines - any business you get you must have to have marbles to play and I did..."

Bongani: "But you didn't have them. You hoped you would, but you didn't have them."

Ndaba: "No, I got some marbles. I told you I got some marbles in Canada, Bongani. I got some marbles to develop those mines, I did." (No marbles in the head)

But the marbles ran out too soon. By December Ndaba Ntsele went cap in hand to the IDC who promised Pamodzi R200-million on condition Pamodzi raised the same amount from another source. They couldn't.

Despite this an IDC official released the money without authorisation. But the corporation is satisfied with the audit trail."

Sipho: "You run around trying to raise R400-million. Too little too late. That R200-million is gone - IDC will never get it."

Bongani: "The fact is this whole process was flawed from the beginning."

Ndaba: "No, no, no, this is nothing, I mean, Pamodzi Gold is the smallest in my companies to be frank with you." (size does matter)

Bongani: "It's not nothing for the 12 000 employees who might lose their jobs and their livelihoods."

Ndaba: "The 12 000 employees, this is why I assumed the executive role here myself. I said, 'Now I have got to save the people,' and as I am sitting with you right away, here, I have the plan." (F*cking lying again)

Despite the fact that Pamodzi Gold is in liquidation, Ndaba - ever the optimist - remains convinced that his plan can still save his company.

He says he now has the funds: R626-million pledged from the Chinese in an unsigned letter with no letterhead, and another R800-million from Canadian and UK investors." (Lie number 3- we whiteys know about type writers)

Barry: "Now $100-million is not going to do this story. It might be a bail out for the meantime and keen the company afloat for so many months - it's just going to go under once again." Bongani: "What do you say to those people that you employ who can't put food on the table?"

Ndaba: "At this point in time I am saying that everybody has got food on the table, maybe you went too early to Welkom." (good answer-you checked the facts on that one)

So we (CB TV Team) went back to Welkom after the interview to see if, as Ndaba says, the miners are getting their salaries for the next six months.

Maggie: "It's not true. I don't believe in that and I don't believe in him anymore. He always told us tomorrow we are going to get paid and it's always 'tomorrow'."

Bongani: "Look, why don't you just walk away? I mean you've had your successes in other spheres - mining is just not going to be one of them."

Ndaba: "Bongnai, I don't die before my actual death my friend, after I have solved this thing we can go back to Welkom and I am going to be a hero, it's going to be a nice story." (Pigs fly, Zuma one term only, cure for aids, Bafana wins 2010, whites return in droves to SA, rand strengthens, Mugabe resigns………..)