Johannesburg - The Chamber of Mines is attempting to block “effective and meaningful” participation of black persons in the mining industry, Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane said in new court papers.
In a responding affidavit filed by the minister at the North Gauteng High Court on Monday, he slams complaints made by the Chamber in its court application. The responding affidavit was filed a week later than the July 31 deadline.
Last week at a court hearing Judge Ramarumo Monama lambasted Zwane for failing to file the answering affidavit on time. Monama ordered Zwane to file the answering affidavit within 14 days, Fin24 reported. Monama called the minister’s action’s irresponsible, given the sector’s significance in the South African economy.
“The answering affidavit deals decisively with a number of fallacies - pronounced as truth - by the applicant,” the department of mineral resources said in a statement. “The Mining Charter was never meant to be an ‘aspirational document’ as is suggested by the applicant.”
As the minister, Zwane said he could amend the Mining Charter to achieve the objectives of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). “The applicant assumes that the broad MPRDA objectives and policies captured in the Charter’s framework and targets were permanently cast in stone in 2004 and remain so save for an amendment to the MPRDA. This interpretation runs contrary to the spirit, purport and objects of the MPRDA,” said the department.
Based on legal advice, Zwane said that the Chamber has no grounds to interdict the Charter.
In the affidavit, Zwane highlighted that the Chamber’s allegations of the harm the Charter could cause is overstated. “The applicant’s complaint that R50bn has been wiped off mining stocks is, with respect, bizarre. When any legislative or policy change in the country is mooted and debated, it effects those in economic control who might choose in the short term to sell their stocks.”
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Referring to the short term movement of mining stocks following the policy shift as a test of its lawfulness was incorrect, he said.
Zwane also said that the department engaged with the Chamber, contrary to complaints that it had not. “Throughout the course of its deliberations and consultations with the applicant from at least July 2016 onward, the department kept the applicant apprised of its thinking and consulted with the applicant as the draft 2017 charter evolved.”
No other stakeholder was “afforded” this, and the department “devoted considerably more time, energy, resources” to deal with concerns the Chamber had.
Between March 2016 and March 2017, the department has at least 17 substantive meetings and extensive engagements with the Chamber regarding the draft Charter.
Late filing
The department listed several reasons for the late filing. Namely that the minister was away with several department officials and advisors on July 30 for a bilateral visit on the continent.
Further, it took a longer time to deal with complex issues raised in the Chamber’s affidavit, the department said.
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