---
title: "Sibanye-Stillwater's Froneman - Business must be ‘outspoken’ about the high cost of state failures"
description: "Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman has come out swinging on the subject of state failure and rampant crime."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "MINING INDABA INTERVIEW"
author: "Ed Stoddard"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/ed-stoddard/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-02-06-sibanye-stillwaters-froneman-business-must-be-outspoken-about-the-high-cost-of-state-failures/"
published: "2024-02-06T14:44:18"
updated: "2024-02-06T16:42:56"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 433
---

# Sibanye-Stillwater's Froneman - Business must be ‘outspoken’ about the high cost of state failures

> Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman has come out swinging on the subject of state failure and rampant crime.

By Ed Stoddard · Published 6 February 2024, 16:44 SAST · Updated 6 February 2024, 18:42 SAST

## Key points
- Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman has criticised the government's anti-crime initiatives, stating that they are merely treating the symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of poor leadership and state control, which is costing businesses like Sibanye billions in security costs and production losses due to illegal mining and copper cable theft.
- Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman criticizes government's anti-crime initiatives as treating symptoms, not underlying cause
- Sibanye's security costs in 2023 rise to R1.1 billion, with 458 incidents of illegal miners targeting operations
- Copper cable theft costs Sibanye over R93 million, excluding production losses
- Froneman highlights slow progress in business/government partnership to tackle crime and corruption, cites challenges with judicial system

## Content

Froneman, in his typically blunt manner, told *Daily Maverick* in an interview on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Mining Indaba in Cape Town that the anti-crime initiatives that business is partnering with the government on are just treating the “symptoms” and not the underlying cause.

“We are just treating the symptoms. These problems are all being caused by poor leadership, and the leadership of this country has to change. And we need to be more outspoken about that,” he said.

“What underpins these failures is the ideology of state control. Business and civil society must be a lot more outspoken about this."

Froneman is very aware of the mounting costs of crime and security in South Africa and the toll that is being extracted from business.

**Read more in Daily Maverick:**[Surface raids increase while Sibanye beats back underground crime](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-09-04-surface-raids-increase-while-sibanye-beats-back-underground-crime/)

Sibanye’s security costs in 2023 amounted to R1.1-billion, 19% higher than the R928-million the company spent in 2022.

Sibanye had 458 incidents last year in which illegal miners targeted its underground gold operations and there were 158 attacks on its security officers in 2023, up from the 141 recorded in 2022. The company’s security init apprehended 1,239 illegal miners in 2023.

Copper cable theft cost the company over R93-million last year directly from 1,977 incidents. That figure does not include production losses.

**Read more in Daily Maverick:**[Attacks on security personnel at SA mines increase while underground safety improves](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-09-12-attacks-on-security-personnel-at-sa-mines-increase-while-underground-safety-improves/)

This is why Froneman is involved in the business/government partnership to tackle crime and corruption.

“As a work stream, it’s going well but it’s taken six to seven months just to put structure in place and get organised. I don’t think you will see any visible results for a while because the wheels of justice grind very slowly. But I have to be positive about it, we will make a difference.”

One area is the 10111 emergency number and the collapsed call centres which are supposed to handle such calls.

“It’s not our priority but we work with them and have brought in private sector expertise to get that working again. We have an initiative in Midrand to get that up and running. But it’s going to take months,” Froneman said.

One major challenge is the judicial system.

“The real constraint is the judicial system. There are [cases that have been heard that just need judges to make a decision](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-07-14-late-court-judgments-lack-of-support-flagged/). There are cases that have been prepared which need to go through court,” Froneman said.

“If we can unlock the judicial system and maybe set up special courts, that would help.” **DM**