Pitfalls of participation: explaining why a strike followed unprecedented employee dividend pay-outs at a South African mine

This paper attempts to provide explanations for why a spectacular strike (in 2012) at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine followed after the highest Employee Share Ownership Programme (ESOP) linked pay-out of dividends to workers in South African history. It is argued that a hidden transcript challenged the company’s official version of the ESOP and that some workers saw a political opportunity shortly after the events at Marikana and subsequent wage dispute settlements outside the ordinary collective bargaining procedures. The context for this was an approach to ESOPs that involved shares held in trust, but funded by loans dependent on future income, as well as contestation over the ownership of mineral rights at the mine by a politically influential rival firm. To this end, the ESOP was politicised in public debates. The situation was aggravated by a divided union branch. The functioning of the ESOP and how workers experienced it are analysed by means of publically available documents and primary research. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the case study for ESOPs in the mining industry as a form of ownership diversity.