Zwane’s weird parallel world
It is a good thing that not too many serious investors turned up to hear Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s sales pitch in the question-and-answer session he hosted at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town on Monday.
Zwane, it appears, lives in a parallel universe to the rest of us, and says when it comes to the mining industry, he has “created an enabling environment” in the past two years.
His door was always open and he was always ready to listen when anyone had “an issue” with him.
Without any irony at all, Zwane also boldly stated that since becoming minister the awarding of mining licences had been accelerated and that he granted 30 licences in the past two years. He did not mention his failed attempt to place the awarding of all rights on ice until the court case over the Mining Charter had been resolved.
Most of the session was tightly controlled by a programme director who asked the minister a series of sweetheart questions on the success of his international roadshow and other benign subjects such as the participation of women and youth in the mining industry. Notably, any question from the floor that was not directly about the Mining Indaba — perhaps about dairy farms, cows or indictments — was prohibited.
The big questions about the future of the Mining Charter and the fate of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Bill were batted away without being seriously addressed. In the case of the latter, he asked the chairman of the parliamentary select committee on land and mineral resources, Olifile Sefako, who was seated in the audience, to respond on his behalf.
The parliamentarian gave a garbled reply, detailing a list of processes by acronym that would need to be completed first. The bottom line was that the amendment might be ready to return to the National Council of Provinces some time around March, but the important thing was to not “create expectations of an immediate time frame” and definitely not to rush the process. As the bill was introduced in 2013 and is in its fourth iteration, it does not seem there is much chance of that.
On the Mining Charter, Zwane again reiterated his open-door policy, saying it was not his department that had gone to court. He offered no explanation of the reasons for such a dramatic fallout with the industry, which has taken him to court, arguing that there are 58 grounds on which it should be declared unlawful. It was only when prompted from the floor that Zwane said there might be room for some negotiating over the charter and “if the chamber was ready, then why not”.
A greater contrast between the high-energy, positive message that had been blasted out by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks before could not be imagined.
Sitting next to Zwane on the podium was Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who, freshly back from Davos, would have been aware of the contrast. Sadly Davies’s opening statement that “there was a new mood of optimism in SA” was not convincing.
And this is the problem with the slow and unhurried transition Ramaphosa seems to have in mind for the country. While he was quick to jump into action over the crisis at Eskom, there are dozens, if not more, areas of government and governance that require urgent attention.
Mining is one of these and while mining has shown some recovery globally — higher metal prices have helped — SA could miss out if it does not put an attractive picture in the shop window very soon.
The Mining Indaba is an enormous event, well attended by CEs of global firms, investors, suppliers, bankers, lawyers and anyone who is anybody in the sector.
For SA Inc, 2018 was a missed opportunity to put SA back on the mining map.
ZWANE SAYS WHEN IT COMES TO MINING, HE HAS CREATED AN ’ENABLING ENVIRONMENT’