The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources, Adv. Hendrik Schmidt MP, during the Budget Vote on Mineral Resources.
Madame Speaker,
The Department seems to remain rudderless in the exercise of its business as mineral regulator. We recently witnessed an umpteenth new Minister but also the appointment of a new Director-General (DG).
The appointment was made after an acting DG was required to steer the Department for an extensive period of approximately a year. This situation seems to be standard practice in the management of affairs by the ruing ANC government where Ministers, and now recently DG’s, appear to be discarded more often than not after having served the ANC’s narrow purpose.
According to Stats SA, mining’s contribution to GDP has shown negative growth of -0.4% measured year-on-year. Employment in the mining industry has also fallen by approximately 65 000 workers during 2016.
Rising unemployment is detrimental to our mining economy insofar as unskilled and semi-skilled labour is concerned. Whilst the demands on the government increases with every unemployed person, it also increases the burden on mining companies and local government who have to ensure that services continue to be rendered.
It is, therefore, imperative that government adopts the correct mining policies and that regulatory compliance is ensured.
Security of tenure and a stable mineral regime are the most important factors in ensuring that the mining sector expands, thereby contributing to reducing unemployment.
Self-defeating slogans such as “Radical Economic Transformation” without any meaning being ascribed to it, need to be tempered with international best practices where mining companies are interested in investing their capital.
An ANC government with strong socialist and communist tendencies has made these objectives impossible, and ultimately responsible for many adversities. These include:
• Amendments to the MPRDA, which have been outstanding for more than 3 years after Parliament approved amendments with the DA strongly voting against it. To aggravate the situation, more amendments are currently serving before the NCOP. This will add to the legal uncertainty. The President referred amendments to the MPRDA back to parliament for reconsideration more than 2 years ago.
• Disastrous changes to the Mining Charter are expected to be promulgated soon, missing the deadline for the amendments announced by the Minister earlier this year, by more than 3 months.
• The results of the Mining Phakisa undertaken last year are still to be made public with not a single stakeholder (including parliament) knowing what the final agreed results are.
• Rehabilitation of ownerless and disbanded mining sites which require an approximate R50billion will, at the current rate of expenditure, take more than 100 years to complete.
• According to the well-known Fraser Institute, South Africa continues its disgraceful demise with regards to its favourability as a mining destination as well as its ailing legal regime in attracting investment.
These are but a few examples of the dreadful ANC leadership exposed in the mining industry which, if anything, has succeeded in leading us to junk status!
When the DA takes over national government in 2019, we will ensure that the mineral resources of our country will benefit all of our people, not just the connected elite.
I thank you.