Solidarity welcomes the regulatory certainty that the Mining Charter brings

Cabinet’s decision this week to withdraw the bill amending the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, and to accept the revised mining charter is a major step towards creating regulatory certainty. 

According to Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis, the content of the Mining Charter will not be to everyone’s satisfaction, and Solidarity itself is not comfortable with certain clauses, but the final version is a huge improvement on the original Zwane version. “Since March this year, following Gwede Mantashe’s appointment as Minister of Mineral Resources, all mining social partners have had ample opportunity to give input into the charter, and the principle of give and take applied during negotiations. 

Solidarity is particularly pleased that white females have again been included in the definition of ‘previously disadvantaged South Africans’ and that the employee share ownership plan is non-racial in nature. It is this very aspect which makes Sasol’s Khanyisa scheme, which is based on race, stick out like a sore thumb, and which comes in an era in which, if anything, non-racialism should be promoted,” Du Plessis emphasised.

According to Du Plessis, the Minerals Council and many analysts will have difficulty to accept the provision for 5% carried interest at no cost to employees and communities. It should, however, be noted that during the Charter Task Team’s negotiations an agreement had been reached that made provision for carried interest of 3% for workers and 3% for communities, adding up to a total of 6% carried interest.

“Unfortunately, two weeks after the agreement was reached and talks were finalised on this aspect, the Minerals Council changed its position to 1% carried interest per beneficiary, which meant carried interest of 2% in total. With this move the Minerals Council accepted the principle of carried interest, but lowered the percentage in bad faith. In response, government and trade unions increased it to 5% each, thus coming to a total of 10%. The 4% added to the previous 6% benefits workers and communities but must be attributed to the Minerals Council’s short-sightedness,” Du Plessis said.

“Solidarity is disappointed that the clause providing for employee representation on company boards was removed at the eleventh hour, but then again the negotiations were a give and take process. Trade unions will see to it that the workers’ voice is heard in practice,” Du Plessis stated.

“The final charter necessitated a balancing act to accommodate various interests and the main thing now is that all players embrace and develop those aspects in the Charter towards which there is a positive feeling, and to manage those about which there is a negative feeling, trying to make it work in the interest of the mining community and South Africa as a whole. It has to be understood that achieving stability in and around mines is one of the charter’s underlying goals and this comes at a price. Hopefully, healthy labour relations and a decline in community protest action will be the positive results for the sector,” Du Plessis said.

“Finally, Solidarity wants to applaud the Department of Mineral Resources, and in particular Minister Gwede Mantashe and the negotiation facilitator, Mosa Mabuza, for the way in which they have managed a difficult process,” Du Plessis concluded.

Statement issued by Gideon du Plessis, General Secretary: Solidarity, 21 September 2018