The extent of corporate social responsibility reporting within the South African mining industry

M.Com. (Financial Management)Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effective reporting are becoming increasingly important. Evidence suggests that there is a growing trend towards investment in companies which are social and environmental conscious. The mining sector in South Africa (SA) is characterised by labour disputes, environmental concerns and seemingly negative impact on local communities. Public opinion and the media commonly perceive the sector to be unwilling to improve on its CSR activities and performance. The goal of the study was to determine whether SA mining companies have adequately integrated CSR into their reporting and whether the extent and depth of CSR reporting is sufficient for the companies to be classified as a CSR conscious investment. To achieve this goal a content analysis was conducted on the official reports of the five largest (measured by market capitalisation) South African mining companies. Each company‟s CSR was analysed by determining trends, the extent and the depth of reporting in the CSR categories; community, diversity, employee relations, environment and human rights. The results indicated that there is a positive trend towards the sample of mining companies becoming socially responsible. The results, however, also indicate that there is a large degree of variation between the sampled companies and that the extent and depth of human rights reporting is a general concern which needs to be addressed