The door was left open for the Department of Mineral Resources to find reasons to appeal against the majority judgment handed down in the high court on Wednesday, finding that empowerment deals in the mining sector need not be perpetually topped up and calling into question the validity of the second Mining Charter. In a minority judgment, Judge Thina Siwendu issued a contrary set of findings, arguing that mining companies had to continuously top up their black economic empowerment levels if they fell below 26%; that the charter was a "statutory instrument with a force of law which is intended to be binding"; and that the charter could not apply retrospectively to deals before the original charter was promulgated in 2004. These minority findings were in favour of the department’s arguments about the charter that has been in force since 2004 and amended in 2010, contrary to the majority finding of two other judges on the full bench that heard the appeal from the Chamber of Mines in N...
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