Why the Chamber of Mines snubbed charter event
The chamber says the last-minute invitation is ‘highly suspicious’ as rumours surface the department will hike black ownership to a contentious 30%
In one of the clearest indications that a major segment of SA’s business community has lost patience with the government, the Chamber of Mines spurned an invitation to a meeting with the Department of Mineral Resources just before a media briefing on the third version of the Mining Charter. The charter has become a major point of friction between the chamber — whose members account for 90% of the country’s annual mineral production — and the department, which has lost senior, experienced officials and appears to be mired in political appointments. The department’s last-minute invitation to the meeting in Pretoria, an hour before a media briefing on Thursday, was rejected by the chamber, using unusually blunt language. Expecting the hotly contested charter to be released at the event, the chamber said the purpose of the meeting, called by Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, under the auspices of the Mining Industry Growth, Development and Employment Task Team (Migdett), repre...
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