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Dirty tricks
Posted: Wed, 19 Apr 2006
[miningmx.com] -- MANY companies are using dirty tricks to curb opportunities for the black majority in the mining sector, said South Africa's deputy mines minister.
Lulama Xingwana, deputy minister of minerals and energy, painted a graphic picture of various "tricks" used by some companies to go around transformation as required under the government's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) initiative, according to a Reuters report.
"Many representatives of mining companies try all the tricks in the book to superficially transform their companies," said Xingwana, who was speaking at a mining sector BEE conference in Johannesburg.
South Africa - the world's biggest gold, platinum and chromium producer - enacted a wide-ranging Mining Charter in May 2004, Reuters said.
The law sets targets on equity ownership, increasing blacks in management and raising living standards for
miners. Under the law, all mining rights are controlled by the state, and private companies must reapply for mining licences, proving they have a plan in place to meet the targets, said the wire.
The charter demands that 15 percent of a company's South African mines are owned by blacks by 2009 and 26% by 2014.
Xingwana said some of the “tricks” included the practice of selling mining rights by black entities "to the highest bidder to fund expensive lifestyles rather than invest.”
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