Zwane ‘is mining’s biggest problem’

The problem confronting the country’s mining sector on the legislative front is not the act under which companies are operating, but Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, politics, inexperience in his department and too much discretion exercised by officials, say experts in the sector.

The problem confronting the country’s mining sector on the legislative front is not the act under which companies are operating, but Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, politics, inexperience in his department and too much discretion exercised by officials, say experts in the sector.

A panel of lawyers and Jacinto Rocha, the former deputy director-general in the department, spoke at the Joburg Indaba mining conference on the reasons for SA’s poor performance compared with its neighbour Botswana and other jurisdictions. “If things have to change, Zwane has to go. He does not have the interests of this industry at heart. He has been captured. We will not move forward if he’s in charge,” said Hulme Scholes, a director at lawyers Malan Scholes, which is taking the department to court to have the Mining Charter set aside.

The minister has been linked to the Gupta family, which has unduly benefited from its close ties to President Jacob Zuma, members of his government and managements of stateowned enterprises.

The Mineral and Petroleum Development Act was “well designed and crafted but its implementation has become political rather than administrative”, Scholes said.

Peter Leon of Herbert Smith Freehills said the minister and his officials had far too much discretionary power. In Botswana, the civil service was not politicised and promotions were based on merit.

Rocha said if he could whisper in Zwane’s ear, his message would be that the minister was destroying what had been built since 1994 with the act, the charters and the human capacity within the chamber — and to plead with him to stop it.