New Mining Charter is the ANC’s suicide note for the industry 

19 April 2016

The Revised Mining Charter put forward by Minister of Mineral Resources, Mosebenzi Zwane, will cause a tragic loss of jobs if implemented. 

New mining investment is already almost non-existent. This will ensure that it disappears altogether. 

The document does not give any reassurances that broad-based empowerment  - that benefits the people most in need - was at the forefront of the ANC’s considerations. These proposals will have unintended consequences that will lead to vast job losses, that are already plague the mining sector. 

This version of the Charter was gazetted in the absence of any public consultation and is emblematic of the very statist unilateralism that has seen the mining sector shrink considerably and cause the loss of thousands of jobs. 

In so doing, the Minister has further compounded the dwindling investor confidence and policy certainty in the mineral resources space which is likely to see more jobs lost. 

The DA fully supports redress that benefits all black South Africans, not just a few connected elite – close to President Zuma and his cronies. This Charter does not do this. If anything, it is the poor that will be hit hardest. 

In the current economic climate, with the large number of job losses experienced over the last few years, the ANC should be spending more time trying to create an environment that is conducive to growth and job creation by creating policy certainty and encouraging investment.  

This is the third version of the mining charter, replacing the 2010 version. South Africa needs more incisive policy that will aggressively tackle inequality and unemployment, unfortunately the current proposals of the Revised Mining Charter fail to achieve this and yet again we face a dull economic future underpinned with rising unemployment. 

Issued by James Lorimer, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources, 19 April 2016