Exploring the barriers to the successful implementation of sustainable development goals in the platinum mining sector in South Africa

Abstract

Since the launch of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations in 2015, as part of the vision 2030 plan, the role of the private sector in furthering the goals has been under scrutiny. The admission by then global Chief Executive Officers surveyed in the 2019 United Nations Global Compact Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability, that business organisations were not performing according to expectations to meet the 2030 targets raised questions on the barriers for the successful implementation of sustainable development goals. This study focused on the platinum mining sector in South Africa as the sector was better positioned to make a meaningful contribution given the reasons provided by the United Nations that large multinational companies control a large percentage of national GDPs globally. This study was a qualitative study focusing on the implementers of the Sustainable Development Goals in these large platinum companies to establish their perceptions on that the barriers to the successful implementation of sustainable development goals in their companies could be. To establish this, the overarching research question of the study was, what are the perceived barriers to the successful implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in South Africa’s platinum mining sector? The principal finding of the study was that the barriers faced by platinum mining companies in successfully implementing the Sustainable Development Goals were lack of capacity to address issues outside of their core objectives. The study found that while organisations were able to address those Sustainable Development Goals falling within their scope of business, they lacked the capacity to address those that fell outside. The constraints included financial resources, institutional support as well as the requisite skills. The study recommended that partnerships with the government in addressing these goals would assist in ensuring that more effective progress was made.