JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – More than 3 500 employees will this month benefit from the first R387-million empowerment scheme payout of the high-flying Johannesburg- and London-listed Thungela mining company.

The Sisonke employee empowerment scheme’s first disbursement is based on the dividends declared for the 2021 full-year results and 2022’s half-year results.

Sisonke – isiZulu for ‘we are together’ – has come about through engagement with the National Union of Mineworkers and the board of trustees, made up of 50:50 employee-employer representation.

Trustee board chairperson Paulos Soviya described the milestone payout as testament to Thungela’s vision of responsibly creating value together for a shared future.  

“The intention of Sisonke is to ensure that one of the most important stakeholders, our employees, meaningfully benefit from the growth and profits of the business,” Thungela human resources head Lesego Mataboge stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

“We are confident that Sisonke will create real benefits for us,” said employee representative Bongani Mahungela.

The scheme, set up as a trust, owns 5% of Thungela’s South African Coal Operations, entitling it to 5% of the legal entity’s dividends.

After taxes and other expenses have been paid to administer the trust, the trust's benefits are shared equally among all employees on the beneficiary register.

The underground and opencast Mpumalanga mines owned by the group are Goedehoop, Greenside, Isibonelo, Khwezela, AAIC (operating the Zibulo colliery), Mafube Coal Mining, and Butsanani Energy.