|
Not many answers
|
|
|
Thebe Mabanga
Financial Mail
Friday, April 30, 2010
|
|
|
|
Minerals minister Susan Shabangu has spent the past year repairing a rather fractious relationship between government and the mining industry.
Last week, Shabangu delivered her department’s R1bn budget vote, which was reasonably well received by the watching captains of industry. Unfortunately, the accompanying debate was marked by irrelevant ramblings from ANC MPs and degenerated into ugly spats among MPs. Notable exceptions were committee chairman and ANC MP Fred Gona and the Congress of the People’s Phillip Dexter.
Democratic Alliance MP Ian Ollis earned himself the distinction of being described by Shabangu as being “worse than Julius Malema” (a reference to the controversial ANC Youth League president) for frequently interrupting her.
Shabangu openly welcomed the findings of the Fraser Institute, which has found that over the past six years, SA has slipped from mid-table — 27th out of 47 countries — to 61st out of 72 in mining competitiveness.
That was refreshing. Normally, when government is confronted by negative findings from an independent entity, be it on telecom pricing or primary school children’s numeracy, the reaction tends to be to dismiss the source and question the methodology.
On transformation, Shabangu said she had found that “original mistrust among key stakeholders” was being replaced by “a growing spirit of collaboration”. Shabangu said the department had found that most mining rights conversion applications fell short of transformation requirements, especially in labour and social plans.
On mining safety, Shabangu said she would continue to implement the Mine Health & Safety Act, which was amended in 2008. The problem with that act is that section 86 is suspended. The section makes provision for mine bosses who have been found negligent to be liable for fines of up to R1m or imprisonment.
On illegal mining, Shabangu could not offer more than a declaration that the matter was being attended to by the interministerial security council. Parliament’s mining portfolio committee has already compiled a report on the matter, but it has not yet been tabled.
The committee was told how illegal mining works as a five-tier syndicate. The crucial point is the third tier, where the illegally mined riches leave the country through leaky customs and find their way to the international black market.
In her response to the debate, Shabangu allowed emotion to cloud her defence of all the concerns raised. DA MP Hendrick Schmidt’s lecture about the danger of nationalising mines was met by a lame rebuttal from Shabangu.
Neither could she offer a compelling economic rationale for why the state might want to be involved in mining, beyond suggesting that the state is already involved in other sectors, such as electricity generation through Eskom.
Finally, when the opposition complained about the awarding of mining rights for the 21,4% stake in the Sishen iron ore mine to a consortium that has links to senior politicians in the ANC, including a link to associates of President Jacob Zuma, Shabangu could only say there was no law that precluded relatives of public-office bearers from doing business and that when her department processed applications, it did not look at such associations.
Gona, a former unionist, welcomed the budget vote, but afterwards reiterated to the FM his continued dissatisfaction over the industry’s slow pace of transformation and the lack of investment in safety.
|
|
|
 Print this article |
 Send to a friend
|
|