Johannesburg - Members of Parliament are seeking amendments
to strengthen the country’s Mining Charter, which is 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.
"There has been no transformation. It has all been
cosmetic," the paper quoted Fred Gona, ANC MP and chairperson of parliament’s mining
committee, 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 targets - 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 around 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.