I am shocked to learn that the CEO of Alexkor, who earns R2 343 559 p.a., spends on average 4 days a month on the mine (see here). This mine has been making a loss for years and the company should cut all unnecessary costs, including locating its head office and CEO on the mine and not in Sandton, where, to the best of my knowledge, little if any diamond mining takes place.

The problems of Alexkor are clearly rooted in the lack of leadership of the company. Many of the staff are acting, resulting in huge additional costs to the company. Assurances given by the Minister that the Acting Mine Manager and other senior staff are " on site at the mine" is irrelevant, to say the least. If they are competent to run the mine, what possible role does the CEO fulfill?

The Minister, in her response, refers to "strategic matters" that are coordinated at the Sandton HQ. Unless the Minister provides details of these; dates, times, tasks and outcomes, the public, shareholders in the mine, have no reason to believe this lame response.

This failure by the government to manage even one mine demonstrates clearly that calls by the ANC YL and others for the nationalisation of the mines are ridiculous, irresponsible and frankly speaking, bordering on madness.

I call on the Minister to sack this incompetent CEO, who I am told has a Bachelor of Arts Degree and who was clearly appointed due to her political connections to the Deputy President of the Republic. That her spouse is the spokesperson for Mr. Motlanthe does not qualify her for this position.

Statement issued by COPE head of communications, Phillip Dexter, November 19 2010

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