Richards Bay Minerals pays annual taxes of R1 billion and estimates its economic impact at R8 billion a year. R1.5 billion of its procurement spend in 2021 went to local businesses.
This huge pot of cash exercises an extraordinary pull on good and bad actors in the surrounding community – as well as their political and criminal overlords – creating a "resource curse" that has already claimed at least 18 lives. The company has been at the forefront of tackling violence entrepreneurs and organised crime, but the cost is high and the war is far from over. For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page .
Ominous sentinels line the long, straight roads to Richards Bay, a city living in fear of assassins. First, towering eucalyptus trees stand sentry on either side of the N2, about an hour's drive north from Durban towards Mozambique. Closer to the turnoff to Richards Bay, trees make way for giant pylons and power lines crisscrossing the road leading to Africa's biggest deepwater port.
Industry here is colossal and appears invulnerable. But the opposite is true; terror stalks resource-rich and economically strategic Richards Bay. People are being watched.
This story is about organised crime, corporate vulnerability, political manipulation and how these all intersect. It is also the story of three men: gangster Nkululeko Mkhize; Werner Duvenhage, the managing director of Richards Bay Minerals (RBM); and Martin Mbuyazi, a community representative with influential p.