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DMR renews focus on Mining Charter compliance

Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi

Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi

3rd July 2014

By: Leandi Kolver

Creamer Media Deputy Editor

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Following the resolution of the five-month strike in the platinum sector, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) would now focus its attention on “full implementation” of the Mining Charter, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Thursday.

The DMR had earlier appointed auditing firm Moloto Solutions to undertake audits of the country’s mining companies to determine their compliance with the 2014 black economic-empowerment and other social targets set out in the charter.

Speaking at a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) central committee meeting, in Boksburg, Ramatlhodi emphasised the importance of the charter holding all parties accountable.

“In this case, the drivers and the main people that must account is the private sector – the mining houses,” he said.

Ramatlhodi asserted that, in the ten years since the charter was first put in place, not enough had been done by mining companies.

However, once the audit had been completed – as was expected to happen by the end of this year – government would be able to start insisting "in the fullest sense of the word" on the implementation of the Mining Charter.

“So now, with the strike behind us, we are shifting attention to the hardcore work that is written within the context of the Mining Charter,” he reiterated.

The Minister explained that, while mining licences were issued to the private sector – the mining companies – the minerals of the country still belonged to government and the citizens of the country.

Further, Ramatlhodi stated that government would pay attention to the social conditions of the workers in the Rustenburg platinum belt, in line with the peace accord that had been signed under the leadership of former deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in 2013.

“We hope that we can use the peace. We will move in with security services, [the departments of] Human Settlements and Health to ensure that the victims [of the strike] are assisted. We will use social services to rebuild normality in the [platinum] belt,” he said.

Also speaking at the NUM meeting, Higher Education and Training Minister and South African Communist Party (SACP) secretary general Dr Blade Nzimande noted that the SACP had called on government to convene a “mining indaba” which should be a key platform for driving the “second, more radical phase of the country’s democratic transition”.

Nzimande said the SACP believed such an indaba was necessary for various reasons including the “serious social and worker turmoil” that the platinum sector strike had left in its wake.

“The underlying reason for this continuous tragedy is the profit-maximising monopoly domination of the platinum sector. The three transnational corporations – [Anglo American Platinum], Lonmin and [Impala Platinum] have avoided centralised bargaining in the sector, flirted with vigilante unionism, and competed among themselves on remuneration, in a manner that gave rise to a conflict between workers.

“All of this has resulted in chronic labour market instability. To add insult to injury, the senior management have been paying themselves huge and insensitive salaries and perks,” Nzimande stated.

He added that, while the SACP welcomed the end of the strike, the party was concerned that the settlement reached focused narrowly on remuneration, which was, although important, not the sole component of transformation.

“This settlement still leaves the initiative for and direction of restructuring in the hands of the mining monopolies. Already, we are aware that the mining houses are looking to further disinvest, mechanise, close some shafts and operations, and retrench, all at the [expense] of workers.

“If this succeeds, not only will it impact on employment and economic growth in South Africa, but it will also have a grave impact on our downstream industrialisation objectives. This is a call to duty to progressive forces and trade unionism in defence of workers,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Nzimande noted that the SACP was also concerned that matters relating to the social wage, which included access to decent housing and education for the mining workers and their families, continued to occupy lesser prominence in the settlement of the platinum belt strike, along with the narrow focus on remuneration.

Therefore, he suggested that the proposed mining indaba should focus on taking forward the resolutions of the African National Congress-mandated ‘State intervention in the Mining Sector’ report, moving towards centralised bargaining for the entire mining sector and bringing about changes to the grading system in mining.

The indaba should also consider the role of contract labour in mining, as well as a range of socioeconomic problems impacting on many mining communities, he noted. 

“It is indeed a shame that the workers who produce billions in rand value terms appropriated as profit by the bosses, are increasingly living in shacks and with their children having no support to access especially higher education and other basic necessities,” Nzimande said. 

Ramatlhodi indicated that government had noted and was considering the SACP’s suggestion of holding a mining indaba.

Meanwhile, the Minister reiterated his view that the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill be reconsidered.

In June, the Financial Times quoted Ramatlhodi as saying he had advised the Presidency not to sign the Bill. He had also recommended that the Bill be sent back to Parliament to review contested clauses or have a separate petroleum Bill drafted so as not to combine legislation affecting the hydrocarbons industry with that affecting the mining sector.

The Minister on Thursday explained that he had made this decision as, “towards the end of term last year, the last days of the last Parliament, a lot of legislation was passed and rushed through, [and] some of those legislations might need to be relooked.

“Because we need to use what belongs to us, the minerals of this country, to develop other sectors of the economy and, in particular, [increase] industrialisation,” he asserted, adding that any legislation passed should work towards that goal.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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