‘Mining bill shows us where we stand’
Chamber chief worried about SA’s dwindling clout
HOW ironic that the executive director of Anglo American South Africa, who is also the vice president of the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, Khanyisile Kweyama, should be declared Africa’s most influential woman in mining — at a time when her firm’s South African interests are dwindling and the local mining industry is becoming less influential by the day.
The accolade was bestowed on her by CEO Communications, which owns CEO Magazine.
Kweyama, 49, is not sure she agrees about the decline in mining. But the industry she leads contributes just 4.9% of South Africa’s GDP, down from 21% in 1970 and 6% just three years ago. It is 64th out of 112 global mining jurisdictions.
“Even if it is declining in South Africa, relative to the rest of the continent South Africa is still a large mining jurisdiction,” she says.
But South Africa’s prestige and influence as a mining destination in Africa is slipping. It is now only the eighth most important mining country on the continent, out of 16.
“That is worrying,” Kweyama says.
To what extent does the local industry have itself to blame for this, and to what extent is it the result of government policy?
“Apportioning blame is not necessarily the way to go and doesn’t solve the problem,” she says. The important thing, in her view, is to do something about it before it is too late.
“Hence the mining industry growth and development task team, which is focused on growth in the mining sector.”
She agrees that without more foreign investment in the sector, the team’s ability to “rejuvenate” it will be limited. She also concedes that the obstacles to investment are well known by now and should not have to be pointed out by a growth and development task team. In a word, uncertainty. “Nobody wants to invest in a sector or a company where they do not know what will happen in five or 10 years.”
One of the team’s jobs is to ensure that the regulatory environment contributes to invest-
We are never going to get to a stage where we are joined at the hip
ment. As things are, there is not enough regulatory certainty, says Kweyama. But she sees light at the end of the tunnel.
After much “tough negotiating” between the industry and the government, parliament passed the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill this year.
Most analysts believe it adds to the uncertainty by giving too much discretion to the minister to decide on licensing and what minerals will have to be sold locally to support beneficiation, in what quantity and at what price.
Kweyama says she believes it satisfies the need for predictability. “The bill is now one we feel that we can live with.”
It is not perfect, but expecting industry and the government to be in complete agreement is unrealistic, she says.
“With regulators and the private sector we are never going to get to a stage where we are joined at the hip . . . where we can say we are marching together without fail. There will always be differences, because our objectives are different.”
The issue of ministerial discretion was discussed “in quite a lot of detail”. The previous minister, Susan Shabangu, had “taken pains to explain that while the CEO of a company has to have some discretion in terms of decision-making”, it is a question of “how long a rope you give”.
Even after being fired, Shabangu’s legacy lives on.
The Chamber of Mines has been accused of giving in too easily on the amendment bill, but Kweyama disagrees. “We said very clearly that the regulations had to spell out where the minister has discretion, so that we know and it is not just sprung on us. We were comfortable with her assurances that ministerial discretion will not be willy-nilly, that it will be guided by reg- ulations that are going to be drawn up at a later stage, and that we will be party to drawing up those regulations and ensuring that they are not crippling.”
Another very influential woman in mining, Bridgette Radebe, chairwoman of the South African Mining Development Association, which represents mostly junior miners, has called on the president not to sign the amendment bill because the local industry has not met the mining charter objectives of empowering black people.
“I don’t agree with her view,” says Kweyama. “Our view as the Chamber of Mines is that we are asking the president to sign that bill. We have asked Ms Radebe to engage with us so that she can say what her concerns are.”
There are those who say Kweyama’s position as head of Anglo in South Africa doesn’t give her much clout or influence at all. Group CEO Mark Cutifani calls the shots and the decisions that matter are taken in London.
She says she is a member of Anglo’s highest decision-making body, the group management committee in London.
“So I am part of the central decision-making.”
But so too are the CEOs of Anglo’s platinum, iron ore and diamond companies in South Africa, who are also members of the committee.
However, the reality is that the company she supposedly leads is in retreat.
“We are still the largest mining house in South Africa with our platinum business, our iron ore business, our coal and diamond business,” says Kweyama.
“We obviously are shrinking in some parts, but that is by no means a demonstration of Anglo slowly cutting off South Africa so that eventually it is nonexistent here.
“We have very good assets. So our official, and non-official, view is that we are not running away from South Africa.
“But there are business realities that say to us we have to relook at many, many things in our businesses.”