It had been naive of government to ask mining houses and associated organisations to merely explain why they did not comply with the requirement to have at the very least 26% black ownership, without tendering any concrete evidence to back up their claims. Now, there is a change of approach to ensure a high level of compliance, according to what the Mineral Resources Minister, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, said in an interview during the just ended 2015 Mining Indaba.
In a response to a question, the Minister revealed that a template for companies to submit information about their black empowerment credentials was to go online on Sunday 15th of February 2015.
Reading from the Minister’s tone, there is going to be zero tolerance for Mining Charter defaulters. He warned: “The law will require us to act.”
In order to qualify for a mining licence to operate in South Africa, a company has to be 26% black-owned and make efforts to procure at least 40% of goods and services from black owned suppliers.
The lethargic pace of transformation has bothered government for a long time. Now it has drawn a line in the sand. The Minister said that he even offered to “assist and remedy” the situation to companies that failed to comply.
