[miningmx.com] — ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has denied that the ruling party was considering to impliment changes to the country’s mining royalties system, denouncing a news report on the issue as “sabotage’, according to Business Day.
In an interview with Reuters in Australia on Thursday, Deputy Economic Development Minister Enoch Godongwana said there was discussion in the ANC about whether to adopt a similar model to Australia’s to generate more funds for the government.
“I regard the story by Reuters as sabotage,’ Mantashe told Business Day. “The deputy minister explained in Australia that government is not looking at anything in regards to nationalisation, but that the ruling party is actually at the beginning of a research project. Reuters concludes there will be changes. That’s why I regard it as sabotage.’
“We South African are getting a raw deal,’ said Godongwana to Reuters. “They (miners) have taken the wealth, they’ve taken the gold, they’ve taken everything.
“The problem is the golden eggs are not being shared. We must be able to catch up with the commodity boom.’
Similar pressure last year in Australia led to a government push for a 40% minerals tax on the massive profits being made by mining companies, although this was watered down to 30% after a huge corporate backlash.
However, Godongwana said such a move was one of several options being examined by the national executive committee of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.
“I can’t rule that out. We are exploring different possibilities and what will suit our own circumstances,’ he said, when asked if South Africa might go down the Australian route.
So far, the ANC has not consulted mining companies on the issue, he said.
The ANC was still months if not more away from making any decisions, Godongwana said, although given the cyclical nature of commodities markets, the government would like to see a policy in place as soon as possible.
“What is the best model we need to develop to ensure that South Africans share in mineral wealth? That is yet to be determined,’ he said.
“We are not going to take something off the shelf and simply translate it to South Africa. We need to take a model and modify it to our own circumstances.’
The comments came less than a week after Mines Minister Susan Shabangu returned from a North American roadshow to allay investor fears about regulatory uncertainty in South Africa.
