Johannesburg - Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane put on a brave face as he addressed more than 200 local and international investors when he made his maiden speech at the Invest in Mining conference held in Cape Town yesterday.
Zwane, who was appointed to his position by President Jacob Zuma in October, went to great lengths to try to convince the world that South Africa was open for business, despite the collapse of commodity prices, rising production costs and uncertainty in the regulatory framework.
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In his speech yesterday, he admitted that regulatory and policy uncertainty was a concern. “I assure you that the democratic government led by the ANC has prioritised the processing and the finalisation of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development (MPRD) Amendment Bill as a matter of urgency in order to entrench the necessary certainty,” he said.
The MPRD Amended Bill was sent back to Parliament in January last year after complaints that there had been insufficient consultation with communities, among others.
“We are also in the process of reviewing the mining charter. It is an important transformation tool and its targets remain applicable beyond 2014,” Zwane said.
“The social and labour plan commitments constitute a critical component of restoring and sustaining the dignity of mineworkers and communities,” he said.
In a press conference on the sidelines of the event, Zwane told journalists that he wanted an out-of-court settlement over the “once empowered, always empowered concept”.
“We took a stance as government to say let us deal with the matter out of court. We believe that engaging on the matter out of court is the best way to move forward,” the minister said.
The Chamber of Mines last year approached the courts for an interpretation on the mining charter.
It wants recognition of empowerment deals concluded after 2004, regardless of value and current status, as it believed the charter was silent on the issue.
Zwane said he was engaging investors on investing in the country.
“The sooner we deal with the MPRD, the better,” he said, adding that he had addressed investors on the perception of South Africa as an attractive investment destination. “We addressed the issue of perception. South Africa’s laws are one of the best in the world.”
Business and labour want the government to do more.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event Chris Griffith, the chief executive of Anglo American Platinum, the largest platinum producer, said tumbling commodity prices were the biggest concern among investors, but hostile labour relations coupled with regulatory uncertainty were fuelling the problem.
Mining houses have had to adapt to the volatile commodity price environment, which has deteriorated since last year, resulting in the writing down of assets, curtailing of capital expenditure and shedding of jobs.
“There has been a mixed message from investors. People will invest in a profitable and safe environment. The environment is very hostile, but it is very hostile, especially with the local government elections that are coming up. It’s not the government’s fault that prices are low. Investors are worried about the range of issues,” Griffith said.
“There is a lot of uncertainty. We need to settle the issue of labour, and regulatory uncertainty. Right now temperatures are high at this stage,” he added.
Gideon du Plessis, the general secretary of Solidarity, told the Indaba that local stakeholders were the biggest enemy of the mining sector on the handling of controllable factors that could influence the prosperity of the industry.
“Stakeholders in the mining industry have the tendency to undo all the good work and initiatives through poor leadership and decision-making. This is turning the South African mining industry into a sunset industry, despite the fact that we possess some of the world’s largest mineral reserves in our country,” Du Plessis said.
BUSINESS REPORT