WHAT GOLD FIELDS LIMITED DOES WITH ITS GHANAIAN BUSINESS, IS ITS OWN BUSINESS - BUT IT MUST STAY OUT OF OUR POLITICS!

It is most unfortunate that at a time when the price of gold has reached unprecedented levels (and at a time when the government of Ghana, like most governments in the wealthy West, is struggling to reduce its deficit - and conjure some economic growth at the same time, in the non-oil sectors), rather than share its good fortune with Mother Ghana, when asked to contribute more to the national treasury - from whence the bulk of the wherewithal to fund Ghana's development flows - Gold Fields Limited, whose PR people like to say is a good corporate citizen of Ghana, appears rather reluctant to do so.

Instead, it is making not so subtle threats that the increase in taxation by the Ghana government, may necessitate the abandonment of planned expansion projects, said to be worth some US$1billion. Yet, the metal has seen 11 months of back-to-back increases - which have boosted the price 22 percent this year. Yesterday, the metal was down 2.01 percent, closing at US$1709 in London.


Indeed, it wouldn't be far from the truth, if some patriotic citizen were to insist that that statement, is a deliberate attempt to influence Ghanaian voters to vote in a certain direction, in the December 2012 elections.

If the ethical investors, in the nations they are domiciled, whose fund managers invest their cash in companies like Gold Fields Limited, were to become aware of the outrageous one-sided existing agreements between gold mining companies operating here, and the Ghanaian government (the so-called stability agreements), they would immediately demand that those fund managers divest their portfolio of the company's stock.

(Incidentally, at around the same time, Kosmos Energy too, has been doing its bit to stab the Mills administration in the back - claiming that it is worried that Ivorian territorial claims will affect its stake in a number of blocks in the Jubilee oil field.

That statement too, is a calculated attempt to influence voters - and is akin to the military's use of psychological warfare operations.

The Ivory Coast is negotiating with Ghana, and border demarcation is on the cards to define their maritime boundary - and the two sister nations are not about to go to war over it, in any case. Yet we are hearing those ugly noises from Kosmos Energy. Why, I ask? But I digress.)

Obviously, at the end of the day, what Gold Fields Limited does with its Ghanaian operation, is its own business. However, when such attempts are deliberately made to influence the outcome of national elections in Ghana, that is totally unacceptable.

The government must act swiftly to neutralise such indirect interference in our nation's politics - by working with pressure groups like Avaaz, Earthworks and Care2, to mount online campaigns against companies like Gold Fields and Kosmos Energy - in their own backyard: targeting their shareholders with million-plus-signature email petitions. In the internet age, that is the only effective way to deal with these arrogant carpetbaggers.

Finally, whiles what Gold Fields does with its business, is its own business, it must, however, stay out of our nation's politics - if it wants to continue operating here in future. A word to the wise...

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