14. POWER AND THE POLITICS OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY ON THE PLATINUM BELT

A conversation with Dinah Rajak

Maren Grimm In 2016 you published a study with the title ‘Hope and betrayal on the Platinum Belt: Responsibility, violence and corporate power in South Africa’. Investigating Lonmin, you argue that the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies had actually enabled mining companies to externalise and dispense with their social obligations rather than fulfilling them.

It has enabled companies to accrue moral authority while displacing claims of entitlement and their attendant costs. And that Marikana actually highlights this paradox in the workings of CSR.