'Give us concrete proposals on mining'

Durban - The ANC has called for concrete proposals on what more can be done on transferring the country’s mineral wealth to the poor.

"Given that the ownership of all mineral deposits have reverted back to the state, that private operators pay royalties to the state and a state-owned mining company has been reactivated; we need to offer concrete proposals as to what more can be done in this sector," says the party’s Organisational Review Report, which was tabled at its National General Council in Durban on Tuesday.

The report, compiled by the party’s secretary general Gwede Mantashe, says two demands of the ANC’s Freedom Charter had been put on the agenda of the movement for discussion. The first was "the demand that the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole".

The second was "to give practical meaning" to the work that has been done and programmes that are underway in an effort to implement this policy as outlined in the Freedom Charter.

"The question we need to answer regarding the role of the state in the creation and redistribution of wealth and income is whether we have made sufficient progress in ensuring that the people shall share in the country’s wealth."

The report says the ANC Youth League, which has taken up the debate on nationalising mines, was "a critical body of opinion", but that it had to be more tolerant when it debated the issue.

"We must however, highlight and emphasise that the ANCYL must be more open and tolerant of different views when issues are opened for public debate. To antagonise and alienate those who wish to contribute to the debate makes the engagement poorer."

The report says the biggest source of policy disagreements in the ANC’s alliance with the SA Communist Party and the Congress of SA Trade Unions was over the economy and required "full attention".

"We remain divided on the monetary policy instruments, for example, interest rates policy, inflation targeting, exchange controls and the most appropriate policy framework to effectively deal with the challenge of high unemployment," the report says.