Mining needs to be put back on an even keel as fast as possible
Very telling were the comments of Deputy Minerals Minister Godfrey Oliphant during last week’s radio interview with 702 morning host Xolani Gwala.
During the interview, the experienced Deputy Minister made no bones about his discomfort at not being consulted on Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s proposed mineral rights moratorium and his determination to make good the damage already done by the unworkable Mining Charter Three and the moratorium on mineral rights.
“No, the Minister did not raise the matter of suspending licences with me,” said Oliphant, who has served under three Mineral Resources Ministers with distinction.
Interestingly, Zwane’s attempt to suspend mining right, prospecting right and Section 11 ownership transfer applications – and their renewal – is evoking far more strident opposition than the ultraconfusing revised charter that preceded it.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), for instance, was soft on the revised charter but rock hard on the moratorium. The NUM came out against the moratorium with all guns blazing and severely berated the Minister for putting 20 000 jobs at risk.
At corporate level, Kumba Iron Ore CEO Themba Mkhwanazi saw fit to go public on his concern about the Minister’s use of the moratorium to renege on his written agreement with the Chamber of Mines to hold off on the charter until the hearing of a court interdict in September.
Herbert Smith Freehills Africa partner and co-chair Peter Leon had earlier exposed the moratorium as a circumvention of the underlying purpose of the agreement with the chamber, which then quickly retaliated by serving an urgent High Court application to set the moratorium aside.
“Very constructive” is how Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani views the call of the African National Congress for further discussion to ensure that investment and employment levels are not negatively affected.
Influential voices are pleading for solutions that preserve and investment in what is South Africa’s most critically important industry.
Interestingly, in a speech at a public interest law gathering at the University of the Western Cape, former President Kgalema Motlanthe drew attention to the errant gazetting of the kind seen recently as only being possible “if you have a captured State”.
The plea of Mining Weekly is that the 17-person panel, headed by Motlanthe and tasked by Parliament to investigate current legislation, needs to home in on the damage the revised charter and the moratorium are doing to the lives of South Africans.
In response to a mining-related question from the audience, Motlanthe said the panel’s engagements had revealed the enormous amount of capital that needs to be put at risk for long periods to develop mines.
He noted correctly that “only people with deep pockets” had the wherewithal to sustain such long periods of investment, which is why mining needs to be put back on an even keel as fast as possible.
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