[miningmx.com] — THE impending retirement of Sandile Nogxina, director general of the department of mineral resources (DMR), after 13 years of mining industry service is something of a hot potato for the government.
That’s why it is negotiating terms with Nogxina. I bet they want him to stay on to smooth over the waters at this delicate time, and for a number of reasons.
In the first place, industry players and parliamentarians alike have long lamented the fact that so many senior positions in the DMR are occupied by acting managers, including two crucial deputy director general posts responsible for mineral regulation and policy.
This means a whole second layer of management is sub-optimal. In Nogxina’s departure, you take away the seasoned head.
Also, there’s a crisis afoot. I can’t think of a time when the DMR had so many competing problems to tackle. For starters, there are the proposed amendments to the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).
This process will be technical and will need negotiation, especially at the Mining Industry Growth, Development and Employment Task Team (Migdett) assembly.
The government has also engaged in potentially damaging litigation with Kumba Iron Ore over its disputed right to 21.4% of Sishen Iron Ore Company (SIOC) that Arcelor Mittal SA allowed to lapse.
Then there’s the lingering threat of acid mine drainage that has to be tackled by DMR and which is hanging a pall over the mining industry nationally.
Overlaying this, there is also pressure to create more inter-departmental cooperation, especially in respect of broad environmental issues.
This cooperation needs structuring and executing.
The issue of Nogxina’s successor is also bound to be controversial. The fact of the matter is that Mines Minister Susan Shabangu does not have the ability to appoint a director general; nor does any minister. That responsibility falls to none other than President Jacob Zuma, which means the question of who will follow Nogxina can only be a Zuma guy. Could it be any other way?
One can only expect a Zuma plant in the DMR, which is a pity. Left to make the appointment herself, Shabangu would probably identify a strong independent mines department administrator, the kind of appointment that would lend credence to the DMR’s actions at a time when it is being conflated with business interests, such as Imperial Crown Trading (ICT).
Lest we forget, ICT has been granted the right to apply for a mining licence over the 21% in SIOC. I can think of no better way for the government to prove its interest in getting a fair result from the contest than for a independent director general to take the helm at the DMR.
GOODIES AND BADDIES
Two respected analysts asked me the other day whether I thought Shabangu was “a goodie or a baddie”. I think a goodie.
Apart from the fact that she won’t be pushed around and is a hard talker, she is facing down Julius Malema and his pro-nationalisation supporters.
She has no need to be so opinionated on it while the matter stands as a topic of debate at the next ANC policy conference, but she is and she’s saying no.
Shabangu’s interest in supporting the aims of Migdett and the push to get the mining sector’s competitiveness back up is another feather in her cap.
As for Nogxina, what does he leave behind?
He’s likeable and charming, there’s no doubt. I nearly fell off my chair when Peter Leon, a partner at Webber Wentzel and one of the most prominent members of the legal profession in opposition to many of the department’s legislative pushes, confessed he’d miss Nogxina. (Perhaps he was fearing who would replace him?)
The word within the DMR is that Nogxina is leaving primarily for health reasons, and secondly to spend more time with his family.
There’s also recognition he’s been around longer than he might have. He may return to his village on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast to bring his administrative experience to local matters rather than, as many suspect, take up a juicy non-executive post at a mining corporate, although one can’t ever discount that.
