Social and Labour Planning Consultants

Read how we halve your consulting fees using AI

In the old model, Social and Labour Plan (SLP) development unfurled like a slow caravan across a bureaucratic landscape. Weeks dissolved into months while consultants sifted legislative texts, tracked down outdated census tables, transcribed stakeholder interviews into bloated annexures, and redrafted the same tables in different formats for different regulators. Time multiplied costs, and clients learned to brace for invoices swollen with hours spent gathering what should already have been at hand.

AI has punctured this inertia. Tools like ChatGPT now compress what once took entire teams to a matter of hours. Instead of parsing policy updates line by line, an AI language model absorbs thousands of pages of regulation and synthesises the relevant clauses into clear guidance, referencing the correct regulations and citing precedent where it matters. The consultant doesn’t have to cross-check every paragraph or debate with colleagues whether the latest Mining Charter requires an adjustment to training budget thresholds—the machine has already extracted the nuances and laid them on the table.

Data collation, long the nemesis of project timelines, becomes a mechanical function rather than a human burden. AI sweeps through public records, municipal IDP archives, company employment statistics, and Skills Development Levies reports with no fatigue. A dataset that once required days of spreadsheet cleaning emerges clean, labelled, and ready for interpretation before lunch.

Report writing, too, has shifted from craft to orchestration. Where a consultant once laboured to rephrase identical objectives in multiple SLP chapters—economic development, community engagement, HRD planning—an AI model generates polished drafts aligned to DMRE guidelines. The voice remains consistent, the content precise, the compliance intact. Review shifts from composing text to validating accuracy and adding the authentic signatures of local context.

The cost implications are not trivial. An SLP project that would have demanded several hundred billable hours can now be executed in a fraction of that time. Clients who have weathered years of bloated consultancy fees discover a process that feels almost frictionless. It’s not simply about reducing fees—it’s about reassigning human energy to the work that truly requires judgment: verifying local economic multipliers, understanding the politics of community expectations, designing training schemes that won’t collapse under the weight of good intentions.

AI will not replace the SLP professional who knows how to navigate a tense meeting in a dusty town hall or can intuit which local contractor will deliver on a community centre project. But it does erase the slow, expensive drudgery that once disguised itself as “research” or “drafting.” The result is a cleaner process: transparent, efficient, easier to audit.

In a field where regulatory compliance and community trust can hinge on clarity, this transformation matters. Costs fall. Quality rises. And the space between intention and delivery narrows into something more humane—more honest—than the industry has known for a long time.

Our dedicated mission is to address your specific Social and Labour and Mining Charter challenges. We specialize in assisting mining companies that may be facing non-compliance issues and guide them towards effective strategies for filling those gaps. Our extensive experience with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has shown that they are not overly strict, but occasionally require better comprehension of Mining Charter regulations and broader legislation. We understand that navigating the regulatory landscape can be perplexing, which is why we achieve negotiated settlements for most challenges. Our collaborative approach ensures we find mutually beneficial solutions for your compliance needs. Let us help you overcome your social and labor challenges, delivering tangible results for your mining operations.

We are here to uncomplicate your Social License to Operate. To this end, we provide advisory and software services to assist in resolving any SLP and/or Mining Charter challenge that you may have.

Click here to read how we assist with your Social and Labour Plan and Mining Charter compliance

We guide you to understand your own unique social and labour plan and mining charter compliance commitments. Yes, unbelievable as it may sound, every mine has it’s own unique mining charter.
The first iteration of the mining charter was introduced in 2002 by the Department of Minerals and Energy. It set a target of 26% black ownership of mining companies by 2014, along with other goals related to employment equity, procurement, and community development.
In 2010, a new version of the mining charter was introduced, which raised the ownership target to 30% and included new provisions related to the beneficiation of minerals and the promotion of research and development.
In 2017, the government released a third version of the mining charter, which raised the ownership target to 30% and added new provisions related to local content procurement and the empowerment of women in the mining industry. However, the new charter was met with resistance from some mining companies, who argued that the ownership target was too high and would discourage investment in the sector.
In 2018, the government and mining industry reached a compromise agreement on the ownership target, which would be calculated using a “once empowered, always empowered” principle. This means that companies that had previously met the ownership target would not be required to sell additional shares to black investors.
In 2020, the provisions of the Mining Charter 2018 was challenged and the clauses on inclusive procurement and ownership were set aside. It was emphasised that the Mining Charter is policy, not law, and if anything, the Mining Charter 2010 is the closest the policy comes to legal obligation.
In a nutshell, the agreement between the DMRE and the mine right holder is the mine's unique mining charter.
We use our database of all social and labour plan and mining charter obligations published by the DMRE and we decode your commitments.
We agree your own unique social and labour plan and mining charter obligations and we do a gap analysis between your performance and commitments.
We then agree a strategy for you to close those gaps.

Four things we do quick and we do well….

Rapid update of your Social and Labour Plan

Three months after your financial year-end you need to to submit your SLP Annual Report. If you find yourself short of hands, difficult to compile data or challenges in integrating mutliple streams of specialities, we can assist you.

SLP Mining Charter reports, templates and scorecards
It is not that easy to keep your data consistent, hence if you need an expert to integrate your Excel spreadsheets, using easy data tables and pivot tables, let us assist you in compiling these. In particular, we have developed a mining charter scorecard – all you need to do is enter a number of datapoints, and we can calculate your B-BBEE score.

Extensive and Secure Software Solutions
With our partner, Pivot-systems, we have developed an extensive software solution that assists you to measure and manage all your SLP Mining Charter commitments.

Charter Coaching and Training

We make an assessment of your needs and develop a training program commensurate with your needs.

Click below what you need help with….

Demand letters from DMRE? We assist…

The nature of the letter will determine its urgency. If its a letter to threaten you to close your mine because you are uncompliant, urgent consultations with the DMRE is necessary. If it’s a letter to inform you of an audit, then engage the DMRE with a view to establish the areas that will be covered in the audit. If on the other hand its a letter pointing out that you need to update certain aspects of your SLP, be it complaints from communities, be it an LED project that you have not completed, engage constructively. Remember, you have rights, that your contract with the DMRE is your last approved SLP, excluding new regulations that has come about.

Know your rights and obligation

Under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), Social and Labour Plan (SLP), and the Mining Charter, mining rights include the right to apply for and conduct mining operations, provided all legal and regulatory requirements are met. You are entitled to fair administrative processes and secure tenure, with rights to appeal unfair decisions. Obligations include compliance with MPRDA provisions, implementing an SLP addressing human resource and local economic development, adhering to Mining Charter targets, and conducting regular environmental assessments. You must ensure health and safety measures, engage in corporate social responsibility initiatives, and maintain transparent records and reporting to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE). Compliance ensures responsible, sustainable mining operations in line with South African laws and regulations.

Let’s develop your new SLP

In this regard, experience is significant. We have been invovled with SLP’s since 2004. We have seen the migration of the Social and Labour Plan from what appeared at first to be complex documents, seemintly fraught with potholes, to a more transparent and easy to understand document. (See some of our projects)

To compile a new Social and Labour Plan (SLP) for our clients, we follow a comprehensive approach that includes understanding the specific requirements of the Mining Charter and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). We conduct a thorough needs analysis, engage with stakeholders, and perform socio-economic impact assessments. We then develop tailored strategies for local economic development, skills development, and community projects. Our process ensures full compliance with regulatory standards, promoting sustainable development and fostering positive community relations. (Click for more information)

Developing a Social and Labour Plan (SLP) involves several key steps. Initially, compliance requirements are reviewed, followed by stakeholder consultation to address impacts. An impact assessment is conducted, aligning compliance and mitigation measures, setting priorities based on cost-effectiveness. Plans are documented as per DMR format, submitted for approval, and commitments are tracked post-approval using an SLP Tracker. Click to read more below.

Our approach to co-creating a practical Social Labour Plan with you is the following (+read SLP Guidelines)

Compliance: The first step is to review all the compliance requirements pertaining to developing the SLP.

Consultation: Once we obtained a thorough understanding of all the compliance measures, we can begin with consulting affected stakeholders because we need to work toward establishing the material impacs. These impacts need to be mitigated or enhanced.

Impact Assessment: To a large extent, the compliance categories and aspects set out in the SLP Guidelines dictate the important focus-issues. Compliance issues and on-the-ground impacts mostly overlap because the well-known negative impacts are generally aspects that also need compliance. A SLP is by default a document that dictates how impacts and compliance measures will be mitigated or enhanced. The SLP is therefore the plan that indicates how this needs to be done. Once we identified the impacts and enhancement measures, and evaluated these against the compliance aspects, then priorities is set.
We then evaluate each priority in terms of its cost-effectiveness because practical plans is necessary for each.

Documentation: Once we made a thorough assessment of the priorities of the the SLP, we document the plans in the format that the DMR has prescribed.

Approval: Once the SLP has been compiled, it is submitted to the regional DMR’s offices. Approval is then awaited.

Tracking: Once approved, we assist our clients to track their commitments using our SLP Tracker.

The SLP and Mining Charter address the same elements, namely Ownership, HRD, EE, HLC, Procurement and MCD. The key difference is that the mining charter outlines the targets, and the SLP sets our how those targets will be achieved. For that reason, the SLP is a far more lengthy document and detailed plan, whereas the Mining Charter is as it says, a scorecard, (or a dashboard). To manage both, it goes without saying that the Mining Charter sets the objectives, and the SLP is the planning and the management to achieve those targets.

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Note that the following are published SLP’s on the internet.

SLP4Good Consulting

Social and Labour Planning Consultants

Four things we do quick and we do well….

Social and Labour Plan Mining Charter Advisory