South Africa

South Africa

Mining Charter: Ramaphosa to the rescue – but community voices still ignored

Mining Charter: Ramaphosa to the rescue – but community voices still ignored

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s personal intervention in the current impasse around the controversial Mining Charter has been greeted with relief and optimism by industry players. One of Ramaphosa’s first presidential moves was to negotiate the postponement of court action, slated to start on Monday, aimed at setting aside the charter. But members of community groups directly affected by mining say that – as has become the norm – their views on the matter were ignored. By REBECCA DAVIS.

The members of more than 150-based community organisations were eagerly anticipating Monday, February 19 – the day they expected to finally have their say in court about the much-debated Mining Charter, a document which they maintain has failed in each of its three iterations to reflect the views of people who live around South African mines.

But, over the weekend, an agreement was struck between government and the mining industry, at the personal behest of President Cyril Ramaphosa. After the Presidency held last-minute talks following Friday’s State of the Nation Address, it announced on Sunday:

The Chamber of Mines, on behalf of its members, has agreed jointly with the Department of Mineral Resources to postpone its court application in respect of the Reviewed Mining Charter, which was due to be heard in the High Court on 19 to 21 February.”

The statement explained:

The postponement serves to allow parties the space to engage and find an amicable solution.”

Industry has responded with cautious optimism to the prospect of Ramaphosa-brokered talks. The Chamber of Mines’ Tebello Chabana told Daily Maverick on Monday:

The chamber is looking forward to the multi-stakeholder negotiations that lie ahead.”

But lawyers for the community groups who joined the legal action as friends of the court say they were given no say in the weekend decision to postpone the case.

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies’ Louis Snyman told Daily Maverick:

We were not even aware of the discussion taking place over the weekend. We were notified during the latter part of Sunday that a decision had already been made. We had been completely excluded from the discussion between the Chamber of Mines and the state.”

Snyman says it is precisely this problem – that community voices in mining are perpetually sidelined – that led them to join the court action in the first place.

Lawyers for the affected communities appeared before judges at the Pretoria High Court on Monday regardless. While the court concluded that the matter should indeed be postponed to allow for consultations, it also issued an order compelling industry and government to ensure the involvement of mining-affected communities in the negotiations.

We achieved something quite historic: the court saw the need to pronounce that communities are indeed key stakeholders [in this matter] and have a direct right to be consulted in negotiating a charter,” Snyman said.

After the court ruling, the Presidency hastily released a statement reaffirming its commitment to community involvement in the process.

It is regrettable that there was insufficient consultation on the issue of the postponement,” it stated. “Government will ensure that this matter is corrected in engagement on the Mining Charter going forward.”

The Presidency’s speed to correct the record on this matter suggests that Ramaphosa’s team is acutely aware that public perception will be that the new president is likely to throw his support behind business on this matter, given his own history in mining.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and during his State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa made it clear that one of his first priorities would be to clear the bottleneck around mining regulation to revitalise investor interest in time for South Africa to ride the commodities wave.

The Chamber of Mines’ Chabana told Daily Maverick that the failure to consult with communities over the court postponement was the result of insufficient time.

Unfortunately, the short time gap between the President’s SONA statement and the scheduled hearing date meant that urgent discussions and decisions were needed and time did not permit a comprehensive consultative process,” Chabana said.

The Chamber was uncertain until late Sunday afternoon what would transpire. For our part, as soon as matters became clear, we contacted [the lawyers for the affected communities] to advise them of our intentions.”

But for the activists lobbying for a seat at the negotiation table, the failure to consult is seen as simply par for the course.

At an Alternative Mining Indaba event held in Cape Town earlier this month, frustration on this score was clear.

The Mining Charter will not be effective without community consultation,” mining activist Meshack Mbangula said on that occasion. “We are the ones who face all the problems.”

At the same event, Lawyers for Human Rights’ Mametlwe Sebei put matters even more forcefully.

The only legacy of the mines in most of these communities,” said Sebei, is “a legacy of neglect: economically, environmentally, socially”.

Sebei asked: “After more than 100 years of the mining industry in this country, are our communities better off?”

The mining communities and the Chamber of Mines may both have objections to the current Mining Charter, but the two parties are unlikely bedfellows.

The Chamber of Mines objects that the charter goes too far in its empowerment requirements, whereas in some regards the complaint of mining community networks is the opposite – that it doesn’t go far enough in ensuring transformative benefits are felt by communities around mines.

We cannot have a truly transformed Mining Charter or a truly transformed mining industry without meaningful community participation,” stated the Centre for Applied Legal Studies upon joining the court action on behalf of communities.

On at least one point, however, the two parties seem in agreement: that current Minister of Mineral Resources Mosebenzi Zwane has to go.

Until now, Minister Zwane has not demonstrated any willingness to address the challenges faced by our industry,” the chamber’s Chabana told Daily Maverick.

Community attorney Snyman described Zwane’s attitude to community engagement as “absolutely poor, minimal and not at all genuine”.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent statements on the Mining Charter negotiations, meanwhile, have not included any reference to Zwane.

With one of Zwane’s closest allies already arrested by the Hawks as part of their State Capture investigations, moreover, it seems virtually certain that Zwane’s time in his portfolio is almost up. The Mining Charter he personally championed may be headed for the same fate. DM

Photo: Police look on as women carry placards in protest against the killing of miners by the South African police on Thursday, outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) north-west of Johannesburg, August 17, 2012. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko.

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