Mantashe’s first budget gets roasting
MPs HAVE slammed and rejected Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe’s budget vote, saying a “new dawn” was yet to be felt in the mining sector.
Members of the National Council of Provinces were responding to Mantashe’s maiden budget vote speech in Parliament yesterday.
DA MP Cathleen Labuschagne said: “The hope of a new dawn announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa is not realising in the mining industry.
“A new dawn implies change. Unfortunately change in the mining industry is currently characterised by lower production with an impact on job security, limited interest in prospecting that should lead to new mining activity as many South African mines come to the end of their production within 10 to 15 years, and lack of investments,” said Labuschagne.
She said StatsSA announced a 2.2% fall in the GDP in the first quarter of 2018 with agriculture, mining and manufacturing identified as the main reasons for this drop.
“There was a 9.9% drop in mining due to lower production of gold and other metal ores, mostly in the platinum group,” added Labuschagne.
The Department of Mineral resources was allocated R1.9 billion for the 2018/19 financial year.
Mantashe said the funding allocated to the department and its portfolio of entities remained inadequate for it to carry out its mandate effectively.
But he said the government was taking the right steps to clamp down on soaring mine-related deaths. “The increase in fatalities in 2017 is a serious concern. Since the beginning of 2018, a total of 33 fatalities have been reported.
“Together with the Mine Health and Safety Council, CGS, CSIR, organised labour, employers as well as industry experts in rock engineering and seismology, the department is paying special attention to the issue of seismicity,” said Mantashe.
EFF MP Makosini Chabangu appealed to the department to prioritise the safety of mineworkers. “In the State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa mentioned deaths of miners, but he has done nothing to address these deaths.
“The mining industry has exploited our people at the expense of human rights and our people for 24 years. Our people are dying in mines,” said Chabangu.
Recenlty, seven miners died at an incident caused by a seismic event at Sibanye-Stillwater’s Masakhane mine, raising the death toll this year to 31.
Also this year, 955 miners were temporarily trapped at another Sibanye-Stillwater mine in Welkom, after an electric cable outage during a storm. All the workers were rescued.
Mantashe said the department would host a Mine Health and Safety Summit to assess progress made in attaining its objective of “zero harm” and “to chart a way forward”.
According to provisional indications, 86 miners died in South African mines last year compared with the 73 mining fatalities in 2016, 77 in 2015 and 84 in 2014. So far this year, 33 miners have died.
MPS POINT OUT PROMISED NEW DAWN IN MINING HAS YET TO HAPPEN