The ongoing merger between Anglo American and Teck Resources, which will create a Vancouver-based critical minerals firm called Anglo Teck, is being touted as a future “game-changer” for global copper supply. But in South Africa, the deal is widely seen as the symbolic culmination of Anglo’s long, steady retreat from the country that built it.
South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada, Rieaz Shaik, has maintained that the country could still play a role in the new entity, pointing to its world-class deep-level mining expertise that could benefit Canadian operations. His optimism, however, contrasts sharply with the resentment in South Africa over Anglo’s strategic shift and its changing identity.
Founded in Johannesburg in 1917, Anglo American was once inseparable from South Africa’s economy, shaping everything from mining towns and labour markets to the rise of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Its influence was so extensive that the company became synonymous with South Africa’s industrial and political history, drawing both economic praise and criticism for its dominance during apartheid.
Earlier this year, Anglo announced that it would merge with Canada’s Teck Resources and relocate its global headquarters to Vancouver. The company says the move reflects a strategic repositioning toward critical minerals and a need to operate in jurisdictions with regulatory stability and lower carbon pressures. But to many South African policymakers, industry veterans and ordinary citizens, the shift reinforces a decades-long trend: that Anglo extracted extraordinary value from South Africa for a century, only to steadily disengage once the country’s economic complexities, politics and social obligations made operating there less convenient.
Critics argue that the company is effectively “abdicating responsibility,” distancing itself from its historic social footprint while continuing to profit from global operations built on wealth accumulated in South Africa. Anglo has spent years selling off South African assets from platinum to coal and its exit from the JSE in 2019 was already viewed as a symbolic blow. The merger with Teck now cements the perception that one of South Africa’s most iconic firms has chosen a future elsewhere.
There are also risks that could complicate the merger. Analysts warn that the deal will face intense scrutiny under Canada’s Investment Canada Act, which could impose conditions or even derail parts of the agreement.
Environmental advocates note that both companies bring significant baggage: Anglo’s operations in South Africa have long been tied to pollution, labour disputes and deep-rooted inequality, while Teck has faced allegations of water contamination and other environmental breaches in North America. Critics say the framing of Anglo Teck as a “green minerals champion” is misleading, given the companies’ extractive histories and the communities still waiting for long-promised clean-up and compensation.
The political backdrop is shifting as well. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is travelling to Johannesburg for the G20 Leaders’ Summit, where Ottawa and Pretoria are exploring a new trade and investment arrangement. Shaik described the emerging framework informally as a “gas-for-wine deal.” Negotiations are focused on five sectors; agribusiness, infrastructure, mining, energy and advanced technologies and are expected to result in a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement rather than a traditional tariff-cutting trade pact.
According to Canadian outlet Chat News Today, the talks remain stuck on designing a mutually acceptable dispute-resolution mechanism. Senior South African officials will travel to Saskatchewan to study its seed-to-market agricultural systems, while Pretoria hopes to learn from Canada’s cold-chain technologies to reduce food spoilage.
South Africa is also pushing for provincial liquor boards across Canada to list more premium South African wines as it moves away from bulk exports. In return, Pretoria has signalled potential interest in purchasing Canadian liquefied natural gas, contingent on Canada completing its delayed export infrastructure.
There is further scope for cooperation in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, nuclear technologies and cleaner coal processes, with several Canadian companies already involved in South Africa’s Just Energy Transition.
Carney and President Cyril Ramaphosa are expected to address these negotiations during the G20 summit. Officials in Ottawa say Canada hopes to deepen ties with Pretoria, citing shared economic challenges as mid-sized economies reliant on the US market.
Shaik noted that the relationship between the two countries has historical depth, Canada was a vocal opponent of apartheid and supported South Africa’s transition to democracy, but added that the partnership has stagnated in recent years. “It’s a family relationship,” he said, “but it is not dynamic and it’s not interactive.”
Even as the two governments work to rejuvenate diplomatic and commercial ties, Anglo American’s departure casts a long shadow. For many in South Africa, the creation of Anglo Teck underscores an uncomfortable truth: while states speak of partnership and shared prosperity, multinational corporations often view South Africa less as a long-term partner and more as a resource base to be mined and eventually abandoned.
In South Africa, the merger reinforces a lingering sense of loss. One of the country’s most historic and influential companies, an institution that has shaped the national economy for more than a century, has chosen to build its future elsewhere.
