Action plan for mining

If SA is to turn around the woeful levels of investment in its mining industry the new ANC leadership needs to take certain steps urgently.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane must be replaced. The industry needs a minister who it believes can work with it and is untainted by scandal. Zwane is up to his neck in it and the weeks ahead, starting with another appearance before the parliamentary mineral resources committee to answer allegations relating to state capture, will only get him in deeper.

Mining Charter 3 must be withdrawn. The manner of its going will also be important. If there is obfuscation, dealing and caveats it will send a message that the government approves the direction of the charter and is only concerned about changing the method of implementation.

The five-year odyssey of the new version of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act through Parliament must be stopped. The bill is a bad one and will ensure there is little new investment. It is also so procedurally flawed as to almost guarantee it will not pass constitutional muster, even if one were to accept that it does not also include unconstitutional provisions in its substance.

All appointments of senior personnel in the Department of Mineral Resources must be reexamined. There’s been a wholesale change at deputy director-general level as officials with years’ experience have left. With attempts to shift regional managers around this has given rise to grave suspicions about the probity and ability of top officials to deliver an efficient and honest mining jurisdiction.

James Lorimer MP DA mineral resources spokesman