There is lack of sincerity in how the country has been approaching transformation initiatives in the mining sector. And nowhere has this been embarrassingly exposed than the worsening gap between the haves and have-nots in the mining sector.
Transformation has been conveniently reduced to empowerment deals that only benefit the politically well-connected, Sipho Dube, Managing Director of Endulwini Mining Corporation, laments in an article “Black owners denied ownership of mines” which was published in Sunday Times on 20 of September 2015.
‘If you look at empowerment deals which took place between 1996 and 2002, none of them were designed to transform the mining sector. Instead, they were created to appease the newly created middle class as well as the ruling party,” Dube stresses.
He argues that the deals were also used to create a buffer as well as deliberately keep ownership and operational control of mines in the hands of the minority.
