Mines seek talks with Ramaphosa
• Damaging charter must be withdrawn, says chamber president
The mining industry has asked ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa for a meeting to talk about the impasse over the third version of the Mining Charter and its crippling effect on the industry brought on by Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
The mining industry has asked ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa for a meeting to talk about the impasse over the third version of the Mining Charter and its crippling effect on the industry.
Chamber of Mines president Mxolisi Mgojo told the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town that unless the charter was withdrawn, the chamber, whose members extract 90% of SA’s annual mineral wealth, would continue with its court challenge. He said the chamber remained opposed to bilateral talks with Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane.
Ramaphosa, who replaced Jacob Zuma as president of the governing party, indicated at the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago a willingness to talk about the charter, which the industry says has slowed investment in the local mining sector.
Ramaphosa is deputy head of state, and with mounting growing calls for Zuma, who is mired in allegations of corruption, to step down, Ramaphosa is most likely to become the country’s president.
The chamber was prepared to meet a delegation of ministers from various ministries including trade and industry, labour, finance and mineral resources, Mgojo said.
Ethical leadership needed to be represented at the meeting, at which the best interests of the country and industry had to be foremost in everyone’s minds, he said.
“Let’s not waste time. We need to get this industry back on track,” he said. “Someone has to say this charter has been withdrawn. It has to actually be withdrawn. That sets everything in motion for a proper discussion,” he said. The chamber would halt its court challenge if the charter was discarded.
The chamber had written to Ramaphosa for a meeting after his comment in Davos that the charter must be set aside if it was damaging investment and creating confusion, Mgojo said.
“He indicated he wanted to engage the mining industry to get it right. We are waiting for the date to meet with him and other parties to kickstart the process.”
The chamber has taken Zwane and the Department of Mineral Resources to court to review and set aside the charter Zwane gazetted in June 2017. The charter had knocked R51bn off listed mining stocks capitalisation in a single day.
The charter has since been suspended pending the outcome of the three-day court hearing that will start on February 19.
Exploration in SA has all but stopped and investment in expansion and new projects has slowed because of the uncertainty about empowerment levels and other onerous conditions in the charter, including a 1% levy on the revenue line to be paid to empowerment partners.
Tebello Chabana, who heads transformation at the chamber, said the organisation was talking to a wide range of industry players — ranging from labour to nongovernmental organisations and community bodies, bankers and lawyers — on what a good charter would look like, how to make the industry competitive and how best to transform.