Mary Bomela appears in the corridor of her office in Johannesburg, stopping every second to greet and speak to staff. It’s easy to see why she draws people to her – she’s assertive, forthright and has a ready smile.
“Okay, that’s enough, get back to work now,” she then tells them, laughing.
Bomela is CEO of Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC), a sustainable asset base for the benefit of mine, energy and construction workers and their dependants. She always knew she wouldn’t follow a traditional career path like her parents did. She knew a qualification in finance would enable her to work in any industry and break the glass ceiling. Thus she studied to become a chartered accountant and also acquired an MBA degree.
“In my previous life, I worked for the mines. Actually, it’s funny. The irony of it is that, as the Mineworkers Investment Company, we don’t invest in mines,” says Bomela.
A former Financial Manager at De Beers, Bomela worked both in mine operations and in the corporate office before discovering that her investment knowledge made her an asset to MIC. For Bomela, the male-dominated industry is easy game once you have the know-how.
“I don’t think it’s about being male or female. It is a bit daunting sometimes being a woman and there are only males but once you’re in your comfort zone, it’s just about being yourself especially if you know what you’re talking about. It’s preparation over everything. If you have your facts, it makes it so much easier, just stand your ground.
“Along my journey, I’ve always had mentors for different aspects of my life and stages of my life. I use men as mentors because they know how to manoeuvre this world – the political world, the inside stories that you sometimes don’t get,” says Bomela.
In spite of being able to hold her own alongside her male counterparts, Bomela admits that being a woman often poses other challenges.
“I’m a CEO, mother and wife, I just found that a lot of my counterparts have wives at home that they can lean on whereas as a mother if your child is sick, you have to make sure that you can take care of them or if there’s a dinner, you don’t want to drive alone. Sometimes our male counterparts don’t appreciate that challenge.”
Bomela juggles her many roles but is adamant that a balancing act is a myth. A strategist at heart, she broaches everything like an investment decision – options weighed and priorities set.
“Equal balance does not exist – where you want to be perfect at work and perfect at home. I just say as you go along your journey at different times in your life, your priorities change. There are times when other things have to suffer because you’re concentrating on another. But for me the important thing is never to compromise for too long. It’s a short-term sacrifice.
“Sometimes as women we have so many balls in the air that we think we can catch them all at the same time. If we do that, one is bound to fall at some stage. Juggle fewer balls and set your priorities, they will change as you move along – your commitments will change with your life,” she says.
Bomela is pioneering the work-life balance at MIC which focuses on prioritizing over balance. Research by Kenexa Research Institute in 2007 showed employees were more favorable towards an organization’s efforts to support work-life balance. For a woman, it’s a necessary model.
“Our office is about 70 percent women and it’s nice to have an environment where people can relate to each other and understand the problems and issues. There’s flexibility, you can work from home if you need to, you can rearrange meetings. There’s an understanding.”
For Bomela, her priorities are set, leading MIC and her family – all the other balls just fall in place.

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Work. Life. And The  Female Juggler

“Welcome back,” said the sign at the end of the strike. This bitter dispute ended with smiles and handshakes under Christmas lights at the mine gate.
On June 25, across the platinum belt near Rustenburg in the North West province of South Africa, 120 kilometers north of Johannesburg, around 70,000 miners went back to work. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) reached a wage settlement the day before with platinum producers Lonmin, Implats and Angloplats.
“It is our sincere hope that our companies, our industry, our employees and all stakeholders will never again have to endure the pain and suffering of this unprecedented strike period. None of us, nor the country as a whole, can afford repetition,” says Ben Magara, Lonmin CEO, after the union signed a three-year agreement.
At one of Lonmin’s mines in Marikana, hundreds of mineworkers walked in darkness to clock in. Their supervisors and bosses formed a guard of honor to welcome them back. But production was far away in the first weeks of the return. Miners were inducted and went through health checks before setting foot in the shafts.
“Previously, mining companies just put their workers back to work straight away. That’s not Lonmin, we are not here for the quick and short term solutions. We’re for a sustainable business with the interest of the person at heart,” says Mark Munroe, Lonmin’s mining division and safety head.
Lonmin says it could be six months before full production is reached.
Munroe says from the beginning of the strike, Lonmin invested in mine maintenance to protect the shafts from damage and keep ventilation working. Engineers have also been hard at work managing water underground.
“We shut down with the cognisance it will go on for a long while. In fact, we put extra mine support in place. We put plans in certain configurations so that we wouldn’t need so much maintenance and check-ins. All the water was stored,” says Munroe.
The separate agreements reached with each company are effective from July 1, 2013 for Amplats and Implats and Lonmin on October 1, and will run until June 2016. Employees with basic salaries less than $1,126 a month will receive a $94 increase over three years.
“This victory ushered a paradigm shift in the entire mining sector. This also shifts the media mindset that our demands were ridiculous,” says Amcu president, Joseph Mathunjwa, after signing the agreement.
Mathunjwa says they have established a task team that will look at worker share ownership. This means miners could own part of the mines they closed for five months.
Former Anglo American strategist, Clem Sunter, supports this.
Sunter says Kumba Iron Ore, a subsidiary of Anglo American, has an employee share ownership scheme which since December 2011 paid out gross dividends to employees of more than $56,000.
“The shares won’t stop strikes but they will reduce the odds that they will go on strike for a long time. It is a step towards a more inclusive economy,” he says.
“The worker shareholder scheme is a very good idea that needs to be encouraged because it could change their lives for the better. It will give workers a meaningful stake from the company revenue,” says Andrew Levy, a labor economist and consultant at Andrew Levy Employment.
Levy says if the workers wishes are granted, it will be prudent to familiarize them with economic literacy to understand the share price of their companies.
“Workers will think carefully about going on strike because they are directly benefitting in the economy,” he says.
The mine owners hope so.

Painful And Costly Strike Ends With Glee And Hope

By mid-June, as FORBES AFRICA went to press, there was no sign of an end to the longest mining strike in South African history. For five months, Lonim, Implats and Angloplats – which produces 40% of the world’s platinum – lay idle at a cost of more than $2 billion to the economy.
New mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi tried to heal the rift in his first few days in office, but fresh talks fizzled out inside two weeks.
May proved a month of tragedy, farce and scorn in the platinum belt of South Africa. Tragedy as 4,000 hungry women and children of miners turned up for 500 food parcels; farce because of Lonmin’s clumsy attempt to end the strike and scorn from most of the miners.
Lonmin issued an ultimatum for miners to report for duty on May 14 and offered to charter buses. Instead, more than 4,000 Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members gathered at the nearby Wonderkop Stadium, carrying traditional weapons.
Lonmin claims a few slipped past the strikers to work, but police say there were none.
Regardless, Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa gave assurances to the traditional weapon wielding miners that their jobs were safe in the protracted strike. He accused Lonmin management of undermining the union by talking directly to employees.
“We have the law on our side. The employers have breached the recognition agreement signed between them and Amcu, the majority union in the platinum sector… Don’t allow them to instigate you to the point you do unlawful things,” Mathunjwa warned.
He rubbished allegations his members were responsible for the attacks on the non-striking miners around Rustenburg. Four people died, several others suffered stab wounds.
Mathunjwa further warned that the police deployment to the platinum belt could lead to another Marikana massacre. In August 2012, at least 34 Amcu protesters were shot dead by police in Marikana.
“If the strike is protected and lawful, why is the government deploying police. To do what?” asks Mathunjwa.
“We are so close to Canaan, there’s no way we are returning to Egypt,” says Jimmy Gama, the union’s national treasurer.
A few kilometers from the stadium, where Mathunjwa left in a fleet of luxury vehicles, the central business district of Marikana painted a gloomy and desperate picture. Many businesses have closed since the miners downed tools on January 23.
On May 19, Lonmin management called journalists to their headquarters in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, they looked and sounded desperate.
“We are asking who is benefitting from the strike. Are the rising incidents of violence not making the strike dysfunctional?” says Lonmin CEO, Ben Magara.
On May 20, platinum bosses and the union met again at the Labor Court in Johannesburg, stripped to the waist and ready to fight each other over whether employers should directly communicate with their employees or not.
Despite the presiding judge, Hilary Rabkin-Naicker, managing to get the two parties back to the negotiating table, no agreement was reached after a week.
“Reaching an affordable and sustainable agreement with Amcu would be in all of our interests, and that remains our preference. We remain committed to on-going dialogue with Amcu and other stakeholders to find a way to end the strike. The companies welcome the intervention of the Labor Court,” says a statement from Lonmin management before the wage impasse.

Tag: Mineworkers

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Work. Life. And The Female Juggler

Painful And Costly Strike Ends With Glee And Hope

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