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Johannesburg - Members of Parliament are seeking amendments to strengthen the country's mining charter, aimed at ensuring the industry is at least 26% black-owned by 2014, Business Day newspaper reported on Monday.
The government has long held that companies are lagging in moves to give blacks a bigger share of the mining industry. The sector's charter is part of a wider empowerment drive, aimed at rectifying the disparities of apartheid rule.
"There has been no transformation. It has all been cosmetic," the paper quoted Fred Gona, chairperson of parliament's mining committee and an ANC MP, as saying.
The paper said the committee has proposed that unions, businesses, government and communities should meet and map out amendments needed to make the charter more effective.
Parliament conducted public hearings on the mining charter last week.
The Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday black ownership among its members averaged 28%, already exceeding the target - politically charged findings far removed from anything the government has said to date.
Business Day said this was wildly at odds with the findings of the South African Mineral Development Association, which found that black ownership of the Johannesburg bourse's top 25 miners was only about 4.5% of their market capitalisation last year.
Mines Minister Susan Shabangu is expected to give her assessment of industry progress in reaching the charter's targets soon.
Shabangu recently told Reuters that she was confident the targets would be exceeded by 2014, but no one from the government or ANC has suggested it is close yet.
Meeting the charter's goals is seen as one way to blunt a push by radical ANC elements, led by its youth league, to nationalise the industry, a prospect that has unnerved investors but also focused attention on pressing issues such as poverty, unemployment, and racial imbalances in ownership.
The government has long held that companies are lagging in moves to give blacks a bigger share of the mining industry. The sector's charter is part of a wider empowerment drive, aimed at rectifying the disparities of apartheid rule.
"There has been no transformation. It has all been cosmetic," the paper quoted Fred Gona, chairperson of parliament's mining committee and an ANC MP, as saying.
The paper said the committee has proposed that unions, businesses, government and communities should meet and map out amendments needed to make the charter more effective.
Parliament conducted public hearings on the mining charter last week.
The Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday black ownership among its members averaged 28%, already exceeding the target - politically charged findings far removed from anything the government has said to date.
Business Day said this was wildly at odds with the findings of the South African Mineral Development Association, which found that black ownership of the Johannesburg bourse's top 25 miners was only about 4.5% of their market capitalisation last year.
Mines Minister Susan Shabangu is expected to give her assessment of industry progress in reaching the charter's targets soon.
Shabangu recently told Reuters that she was confident the targets would be exceeded by 2014, but no one from the government or ANC has suggested it is close yet.
Meeting the charter's goals is seen as one way to blunt a push by radical ANC elements, led by its youth league, to nationalise the industry, a prospect that has unnerved investors but also focused attention on pressing issues such as poverty, unemployment, and racial imbalances in ownership.
