President Ramaphosa’s references to the cadastre was brief, but it was music to the ears of the South African mining industry, signalling that the drive to replace the useless Samrad system for logging mining and exploration rights has top political backing.

“The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has indicated that the process for procuring an off-the-shelf cadastral system, which can be customised to South Africa’s needs, is under way.

“This is essential for the operation of a modern mining rights administration system, which in turn is vital for the growth of the industry,” Ramaphosa said in his prepared remarks which come two days before his annual State of the Nation Address.

The DMRE did say recently that the process was on track, but Ramaphosa’s pointed reference to the issue is a strong sign that this is indeed the case.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “DMRE says process to procure mining cadastre this financial year remains ‘on track’ ”

A cadastre provides the public with online access to the state of play in a country’s mining sector, transparently showing what companies have mining rights and where, and that sort of thing. South Africa’s Samrad system, by way of stark contrast, is a dysfunctional mess, creating logjams in applications for mining rights — a major turn-off for investors. 

There are plenty of other turn-offs for investors, and Ramaphosa acknowledged many. Indeed, his speech almost gave the impression that he was trying to dissuade investors from sinking their capital into South Africa. 

“The fact that mineral production contracted by nine percent year on year in November 2022 — largely due to electricity shortages and inefficiencies in logistics — is indicative of the challenges we need to confront and overcome,” he said.

“In addition to the energy crisis and problems with port and rail operations, the outlook for the year ahead has been dampened by concerns about safety and security, illegal mining and the pace of our structural reform programme.”

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So, what the President was effectively — and to his credit, honestly — telling a conference full of bankers, investors and the like, is that South Africa has an energy crisis and that its port and rail operations are in a state of decay.

He also spoke about insecurity and illegal mining, trends which Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said were worsening. Investors simply do not relish the prospect of being shaken down or threatened by mobsters.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Sibanye’s Froneman says SA’s mining sector is being hammered by the scourge of crime”

The President admitted that his “structural reform programme” was jammed up like an application in the Samrad maze.

In short, it wasn’t exactly an enthusiastic sales pitch. But, as he has done before on this and many other fronts, he did promise that change was on the way.

“… we are far from realising the full potential of our mining industry. We are determined to remove all impediments and create an environment that will drive sustained growth in mining,” the president said.

“As part of streamlining regulatory processes, we are reducing the timeframes for environmental authorisations, exempting energy projects from environmental authorisations for certain activities, and speeding up the process of registering new projects and grid connection approvals.”

He also noted reforms aimed at improving the performance of Transnet, the state-run logistics company that is literally coming off the rails, costing the industry R50-billion in lost exports in 2022.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “SA mineral exports could be R150bn higher if rail network reached potential — minerals council”

“A new policy framework for rail sets out actions to modernise the rail network, enable private investment, improve regulation and restore rail as a competitive mode of both freight and commuter transport,” Ramaphosa said. 

For now, procuring a proper cadastral system and seeing it go live will be a big signal that other reforms are also in the pipeline.

The cadastre is actually low-hanging fruit that could have been plucked long ago, but the DMRE — which probably has a lot of corruption and incompetence to hide — wasted years in a failed bid to reinvent the wheel and tender for a completely new system. DM/BM