[miningmx.com] – THE Chamber of Mines of South Africa is hoping an out of court settlement with the government can solve the stand-off over whether the mining sector complies with the mining charter, a document that 10 years ago set down empowerment targets.
Included in the charter was a section sketching out the employment equity required of the sector. Given the dispute with the government – which thinks the mining sector is far below the 26% equity ownership required by the charter – it will come as some relief that an independent report finds the industry complies with the charter’s employment equity targets, at least at board level – and only just.
According to auditing firm, PwC, 41% of board members are represented by historically disadvantaged South Africans or HDSAs as the charter parlance would have it. This compares to the minimum 40% representation by December 2014, set down by the charter.
When this board composition is analysed by age, it is interesting that 30% of board members are younger than 50% and 53% of these board members are HDSA, said PwC.
Female representation at board level also exceeds the minimum requirements of 10% by 2014 set out in the mining charter, said the auditing firm.
