Rio Tinto's Richards Bay Minerals, the backbone of northern KwaZulu-Natal's economy, has hit back hard at syndicates targeting its produce, resulting in a dramatic drop in theft from trucks transporting mainly chloride and titanium slag.
Werner Duvenhage, Rio Tinto’s manager of African business, told the Sunday Times there had been a more than 80% decline in theft over the past four months due to “great police work” and RBM’s own team’s investigations.
“We were still seeing a little theft activity earlier in the year. In the first four months, we still lost about 8,000-tons of chloride. But things have changed a lot. Recently, we lost one 30-ton truck and our teams can’t understand how it happened,” Duvenhage said.
“So, you can see how we went from truck loads lost per evening to one truck being lost in four months being a big deal. That is a significant change. I wouldn’t say the thefts from trucks declined by 10%. It is more like 80%-90%.”
You can see how we went from truck loads lost per evening to one truck being lost in four months being a big deal. That is a significant change
— Werner Duvenhage, Rio Tinto's manager of Africa business
Up to March, the company had experienced annual losses of “up to $40m” (about R756m) in a wave of criminality that saw 11 people killed. RBM employs 5,000 people and pays more than R1bn in tax a year.
“We are often critical of the police, but I have now been fortunate to see the other side of it — a task team with some excellent officers who do not hesitate to take the bull by the horns.
“Like everything inside our business, I wish we could go quicker with the prosecutions and the orders of arrests and stuff, but if I complained about that I would be complaining with a white bread under my arm.”
The Sunday Times reported last week that RBM conducted a sting operation after tracking a truck to a warehouse belonging to Cosco Shipping in City Deep, Johannesburg. This was one of several premises raided by sheriffs under Anton Piller search orders secured in March. These enable the raiders to confiscate and preserve samples and other evidence that could be later used in court.
Duvenhage said despite the drop in theft, the kingpins of the syndicates still need to be caught.
“It’s critical that we get to that level. Some of our frustrations stem from how we are stepping up that ladder to the top.”
While SAPS and the RBM investigators were conducting their probe, the mining company took the civil route.
“This happened parallel to the criminal investigations. This included the execution of several Anton Piller warrants allowing us to secure and preserve information that may be relevant to potential damage claims. As you now know, one of these parties is Cosco Shipping,” Duvenhage said.
Cosco did not answer queries from the Sunday times despite several attempts and a visit to their City Deep site. Cosco Shipping was formed in 2016 by a merger of Cosco Group and the state-owned China Shipping Group.
What RBM found on their March raids is astounding.
“In some places where the Anton Piller warrants allowed us to take product samples in certain warehouses, the majority of the samples proved to be our product, but some of the samples were product not produced by us — clearly stolen from someone else.”
The fightback stems from a desire to keep doing business in South Africa.
“The safety of our people and the integrity of our business — in that order — remain our top priorities. We are absolutely committed to operating successfully in South Africa for the long term. We have no other thoughts.”
This is good news for the fiscus.
“In 2022 we paid R1.4bn in corporate taxes and on top of that a further almost R130m in mining royalties, so I believe we are a business contributing to the South African economy in many ways, not just because we are doing business. We are putting significant funds back in the fiscus to allow the government to do whatever the government’s mandate is,” Duvenhage said.
He said they have two main objectives; to stop product theft and not place people's lives at risk in the process.
They are making progress.
“We are starting to learn who the South African buyers and exporters are. The police task team will eventually reach these higher levels in the syndicate, but we wanted to stop the stealing as soon as possible. Of course, this will also have the consequence of less money trickling down to the ground to fund the stealing,” Duvenhage said.
We are starting to learn who the South African buyers and exporters are. The police task team will eventually reach these higher levels in the syndicate, but we wanted to stop the stealing as soon as possible.
“You must also understand that the civil route and the task team’s operations all happened at the same time. Thirteen trucks have been confiscated. The vehicles are not just being held; their ownership has been terminated. People with trucks will now start thinking twice before making their trucks available.”
Brig Athlenda Mathe, national police spokesperson, confirmed the SAPS' successes.
“To prevent and combat the theft of commodity and mineral in the Richards Bay area, as well as to prevent the murder of officials linked to the local mine, 26 suspects have been arrested, eight firearms recovered and 48 rounds of ammunition seized. Eight stolen vehicles including trucks have also been recovered. Eleven cases are before court,” Mathe said.
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