Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has told investors that Implats executive bonuses may face scrutiny because of worker deaths at the platinum producer, even though it recommends that shareholders back every resolution at Impala Platinum’s annual general meeting on 29 October. ISS said bonus payouts “may draw scrutiny given the fatalities reported by the company for the year under review,” according to a Bloomberg report republished by Moneyweb on 19 October.
What ISS recommends
ISS advises large institutional investors on how to vote at company meetings, and its recommendations can influence how fund managers cast their ballots. In its report on Implats, ISS recommended voting in favour of all resolutions at the AGM. It did not advise a vote against the remuneration policy or the implementation report.
It did, however, raise reservations about how executives are paid. ISS said that “potential concerns continue to be identified under the remuneration policy,” and singled out the company’s ability to make sign-on and retention payments as a specific concern. Its comment on bonuses, linked to the deaths recorded during the year, is its view as a proxy adviser and not a finding by the company or a regulator. Impala declined to comment on the ISS report, according to Moneyweb.
How much the executives earned
Chief executive Nicolaas Muller received total pay of R69m for the 2026 financial year, which ended on 30 June. Incentives and benefits made up 79% of that figure, and the total was 39% higher than the year before, Moneyweb reported. Chief financial officer Meroonisha Kerber and executive director Lee-Ann Samuel had similar increases.
For comparison, Valterra Platinum chief executive Craig Miller was paid about R46m for the year to 31 December 2025.
The fatalities behind the concern
Implats’ annual report records four workers killed in accidents in the year to 30 June 2026. The company described the deaths as regrettable and said its injury rates improved.
According to Business Day, those four deaths came after a run of six months to the end of December 2025 without a fatality. They were caused by a fall of ground, a rigging incident, a motor vehicle incident and a tramming incident. Two more workers died in underground incidents in July 2026. Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said both July incidents were related to tramming, Miningmx reported.
Counts differ between the company and organised labour. Bizcommunity reported in late July that Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) president Joseph Mathunjwa put the number of deaths at Impala at seven, higher than the company’s figure. The same report said Implats’ Rustenburg mine accounted for more than a third of the 33 mine fatalities the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources had recorded across South Africa so far in 2026.
The July safety stoppage at Rustenburg
After the July deaths, Implats halted production at its Rustenburg shafts from 24 to 28 July for what it called a safety reset, Miningmx reported. The company said the stoppage would affect eight production days in total. Before work resumed, all rail-bound equipment was re-assessed and re-verified, according to Impala Rustenburg chief executive Moses Motlhageng, who said no production target or operational objective mattered more than the wellbeing of employees.
Implats told investors that the lost output would fall in its 2027 financial year and that sales would be maintained from surface stockpiles. Rustenburg is the group’s largest operation, accounting for just over a third of its refined platinum group metals production in the 2025 financial year.
The company has a longer safety record in view. In late 2023 a conveyance accident at Impala Rustenburg’s 11 Shaft killed 13 workers and injured 70 others, Business Day noted. Muller called it the darkest day in the company’s history.
What to watch at the AGM
Shareholders vote on 29 October. ISS’s support for every resolution makes a defeat of the pay proposals less likely. Its comments still give investors who want to question bonuses after a year with fatalities a basis for raising the issue with the board, and the size of any vote against the remuneration items will show how many institutions share that concern.
