Re: Sketching the future of Angloplat empowerment From: Tony Harding [mailto:

Re: Sketching the future of Angloplat empowerment From: Tony Harding [mailto:tharding@mail.ngo.za] Business Day Letters, August 3 2006

Sir

The article "Sketching the future of Angloplat empowerment" by Viwe Tlaleane refers [see below].

Angloplat CEO Ralph Havenstein deserves credit for his recent success in turning his company around.

Recent ligitation involving the company should indicate to him that all is not well in his mining house.

In fact, it is likely that he found in his recent discussions with the Department of Minerals and Energy on the company's empowerment plans that the department was better informed on issues of mine-community relations at his company's operations, and that his view of the situation on the ground was coloured by company spin, rather than fact.

In focussing himself on the bottom line, he has left "softer issues" in the hands of managers, some of whom have little appreciation for the fact that our constitutional order has closed the doors on the paternalism of the previous order. In other words, his company has exposed itself to both political and legal challenges.

He should now turn his attention to the company's imminent applications for new order mining rights, including its social and labour plans, due for submission to the Department of Minerals and Energy in 2009.

It cannot be in the best interest of shareholders to be seen by the public at large as a reactionary force on the social landscape.

Tony Harding