The South African gold mining industry has historically been a major driver of the country's
economyas well as socio-political landscape (Smit 2013). For over a century it has provided
employment investments infrastructure and taxes (Onn and Woodley 2014 Schonfeld et al.
2014) and beenresponsible for the development of dozens of cities and towns across the country
most notable of whichis Johannesburg (Naicker et al. 2003 Durand 2012 Ojelede et al. 2012
Kneen et al. 2015). Goldwas first discovered in the Witwatersrand Basin in 1886 a
geographical feature that was once the largestgold resource in the world (Minerals Council
South Africa n.d.). This discovery transformed SouthAfrica's agricultural economy into a
mining economy and opened the country up for international trade(Durand 2012 Rand Refinery
2013). However the gold mining industry is also responsible for alegacy of inequality
exploitation damaged family structures health impacts and environmentaldegradation (Lawrence
and Samkin 2005 Durand 2012 de Villiers et al. 2014 International HumanRights Clinic
(IHRC) 2016). Furthermore it is important to note that apartheid is inextricably linkedto the
gold mining industry in particular (de Villiers et al. 2014 Benchmarks Foundation 2017).
Theindustry has left a legacy of ownerless and abandoned mines and tailing storage facilities
thatcompromise the health and safety of nearby communities and eco-systems due to air water
and soilpollution including but not limited to acid mine drainage (Winde and van der Walt 2004
Duruibe etal. 2007 Durand 2012 Bobbins 2015). Furthermore the gold industry is in decline
and globalcommodity markets are turbulent (Mudd 2007 Hartnady 2009 Chamber of Mines of
South Africa 2017). From 2004 to 2016 South Africa's percentage of global gold production fell
from 13.5% to4.4% (Chamber of Mines of South Africa 2017). Furthermore the Witwatersrand
reserves are nearlyexhausted (Hartnady 2009) and there are only an estimated 39 years of
accessible gold reservesremaining (Statistics South Africa 2018). It is thus clear that the
South African gold industry is in aprecarious situation and is running out of time to create a
sustainable legacy.Governments civil society and more recently finance are putting
increasing pressure onmining companies to account for their social and environmental impacts
and to justify their continuedexistence forcing mining companies into adopting sustainability
agendas (Mudd 2008 Higgins andCoffey 2016). Many mining companies particularly
multi-nationals are reporting on theirsustainability performance in publicly available annual
reports commonly termed sustainabilityreports using standardised frameworks developed under
the auspices of various responsible businessinitiatives (Siew 2015).
