Chamber is blocking blacks, argues Zwane
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane filed an answering affidavit on Monday, challenging the contentions made by the Chamber of Mines in its court bid to halt the third version of the Mining Charter and have it legally reviewed. “The affidavit demonstrates that every complaint of the applicant in respect of the Mining Charter is, in essence, an attempt to block effective and meaningful participation of black persons in the industry,” the department said.
Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane filed an answering affidavit on Monday, challenging the contentions made by the Chamber of Mines in its court bid to halt the third version of the Mining Charter and have it legally reviewed.
Having missed a deadline on July 31 to file his affidavit and having been rebuked by Judge Ramarumo Monama last Friday for not filing an affidavit in another case, Zwane lodged his affidavit in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday, the department said.
COMPLEX ANSWER
Zwane said he and key departmental figures had been out of the country on the weekend ahead of July 31 and the chamber’s affidavit needed a complex answer.
“The answering affidavit deals decisively with a number of fallacies — pronounced as truth — by the applicant,” the department said.
“The affidavit demonstrates that every complaint of the applicant in respect of the Mining Charter is, in essence, an attempt to block effective and meaningful participation of black persons in the industry.”
MINISTER’S POWER
The chamber argued in its founding affidavit, which prompted Zwane to delay the implementation of the charter he gazetted on June 15, that the resources minister was acting outside his powers under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act and violated the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act in passing the charter.
It said it was the major stakeholder, but was barely consulted on the charter.
The department said there was no need for the interim interdict of the charter requested by the chamber because its “allegations of reasonable apprehension of harm are overstated” and its complaint that R50bn was wiped off mining stocks on June 15 was not a valid one.