ANC is chasing South Africa’s most iconic company out of the country

Mining analyst at Modern Corporate Solutions, Peter Major, said that the ANC’s policies are chasing South Africa’s most iconic company, Anglo American, out of the country.

Major discussed Anglo American’s gradual move away from South Africa during an interview with Biznews last year.

Anglo American, founded in 1917 in Johannesburg by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, is South Africa’s most iconic company.

It was initially focused on the rich gold deposits of the Witwatersrand, and Oppenheimer used the company’s early success to pivot into diamonds.

By 1926, Anglo American had become the largest shareholder in De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer.

This cemented a corporate relationship between the Oppenheimer family, De Beers, and Anglo that would last for nearly a century.

It diversified beyond gold and diamonds into copper, coal, platinum, iron ore, and industrial manufacturing.

By the 1970s and 1980s, Anglo American was the dominant economic force in South Africa and reinvested its large profits locally.

It grew into a sprawling conglomerate, owning large stakes in South African banks, retail outlets, food companies, and industrial factories.

At its peak, the company and its affiliates controlled a massive share of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE’s) total market capitalisation.

Despite its close relationship with South Africa, Anglo American started to limit its exposure to the country in the nineties.

In 1999, Anglo American moved its primary listing from Johannesburg to London and unbundled most of its non-mining South African industrial assets.

In 2025, Anglo American further scaled back its footprint in South Africa, reshaping the domestic mining landscape.

Peter Major said the ANC is chasing Anglo American out of South Africa

Major said that the ANC’s economic policies and its alliance with major trade unions pushed Anglo American to effectively leave South Africa.

“The claws were out for Anglo American. The union and the ANC in the ’80s said what they were going to do to Anglo when they took over,” he said.

“They put the fear of God into everybody related to Anglo, including investors, and so when they had the opportunity to leave the country in 1999, they took it.”

Anglo’s decision to move its headquarters to London in 1999 made it a global miner and began the gradual reduction of its exposure to South Africa.

Major said that Harry Oppenheimer was the one person who fought the hardest against Anglo moving to London, as he was adamant that it was a South African company.

However, because the executives saw the writing on the wall, they seized the opportunity to shift the company’s primary listing to London in 1999.

“I give them credit. They read the situation pretty well, having seen what happened before in Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe when mines were nationalised,” Major said.

The decision proved correct given the ANC government’s animosity towards businesses, especially the mining industry.

Policy uncertainty, government interference, electricity problems, and Transnet’s collapse made life difficult for miners in South Africa.

The 1999 move to London was the start of a process which saw Anglo American’s relevance to the South African economy dwindle to a fraction of what it was.

Major said that, in time, the company might exit South Africa entirely, as it was not an attractive mining destination.

He said that South Africa’s mining industry has been on a downward trajectory for the past 30 years, with output steadily declining and little new investment.

There has been close to no new exploration over the past 20 years, despite evidence of a rich mineral bounty and soaring demand.

Major attributes this to the government’s destructive economic policies, which have led to it being ranked among the ten worst jurisdictions for mining companies.