A Clash of Cultures (and Lawyers): Anglo Platinum and Mine-Affected Communities in Limpopo Province, South Africa

This case study of Anglo Platinum's Mogalakwena mine in South Africa focuses on business and human rights. The mine has ongoing mining company-community relations issues, partly due to its resettlement history. Several hundred families were resettled in the early 1990s. Two additional villages were resettled in the 1990s as the mine continued to expand. This case illustrates the risks of companies emphasizing technical and logistical aspects of due diligence, without sufficient attention to the relational, communicative and emergent aspects, which are closely tied to corporate culture. The article suggests a need for corporate leaders to become more conscious of corporate culture, particularly when interacting with communities whose cultures are markedly different from those of corporations.