CoM not met with DMR for two months despite charter imminence

Mike Teke, CEO, Seriti Resources

THE Chamber of Mines (CoM) had not met with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) for two months regarding the mining charter despite the imminence of a third iteration of the crucial document.

“We have participated in several discussions and provided input with DRM and our raised concerns,” said outgoing CoM president, Mike Teke, at the chamber’s annual general meeting today. “The DMR have not met for two months and right now we are awaiting a response from the DMR, and nothing has happened to date,” he said.

Mxolisi Mgojo, CEO of Exxaro Resources, is to replace Teke at chamber president. He will be flanked by returning vice-presidents, Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye Gold and Andile Sangqu, executive head of Anglo American SA to which a third is added in the person of Steve Phiri, CEO of Royal Bafokeng Platinum.

Mines minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, said on May 16 following his budget vote speech in Parliament that the mining charter would be published in “a few weeks’ time”.

“It will empower the people of South Africa,” Zwane is quoted to have said in an article by BusinessLive, adding that the disputed notion of ‘once-empowered, always-empowered’ would also be tackled in the new document.

“We believe that [the once empowered always empowered] principle was a genuine cry,” said Zwane. The way it had been dealt with “… will mean we will stop running to the courts and work together as the people of South Africa”.

A major objection to the new charter is that the South African mining industry would face additional levies and taxes of R2bn to R3bn a year whilst R2bn already contributed by it for human resource development will be diverted into a new tax collection entity.

Miningmx understands that the mining charter redraft is currently being examined by other government departments including trade and industry and the National Treasury. The latter is thought to be interested in the Department of Mineral Resources plans to create the new tax collection entity.

The charter was supposed to be released at the end of March; then there were hopes Zwane could use his budget vote speech to launch the document.

MODERNISATION

Speaking in his final annual address as Chamber of Mines president, Teke said the chamber “… operates in a changing environment, and it needs to think about how it needs to change itself.

“It is with this in mind that the Council [of the Chamber of Mines] has agreed that the Chamber of Mines should rethink its identify and its name, to be more reflective of what it is and what it wants to be,” he said.

“We will share more thoughts on this process and its outcomes in the months to come,” he said. “The chamber in its more modernised state reflects the promise of a prosperous, safe, transformed and progressive organisation for the future.”

Asked at a press conference after the election what modernisation steps would be taken, Froneman said changes in the organisation would reflect his comments during the opening of the Joburg Indaba conference in which he said the industry had to recognise past crimes in order to reconcile with stakeholders today.

It was dubbed the Zambezi Protocol which was produced following a meeting in April 2016 that had been convened by the Brenthurst Foundation. It recognised Africa’s mining sector was in crisis.

Said Froneman today: “Since the Zambezi Protocol, we have done a lot of work and incorporated that into the chamber strategy. We will build off this.

“The change of name is to establish a new beginning. A lot of work has been done behind the scenes and the outputs will become visible as we go forward.

“I can’t go into specifics,” added Froneman. “But the rebranding [of the Chamber of Mines] and its renaming is an integral part of that strategy,” he said.