Mining: once empowered?
The high court in Pretoria is having to consider whether the drafters of 2004 mining licence conditions intended 26% black ownership of established companies to be permanent or a stepping stone
What was the original intention of the drafters and signatories with the principle of "once empowered, always empowered"? Three Pretoria high court judges turned for pointers to the Mineral & Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) and the 2004 mining charter. When the first charter came into effect in 2004, there seems to have been a vague assumption that helping previously excluded black people take 26% stakes in mining companies would kick-start a gradual process of new black enterprise in mining. There have been some successes, such as Exxaro Resources, Seriti Resources, Shanduka Resources and African Rainbow Minerals, but not enough to satisfy government. Now the department of mineral resources has decided that policies to compel the handover of existing operations are more important than policies to create new enterprises. A year ago the Chamber of Mines and the department agreed to obtain a court declaration on whether a company that meets the 2004 and 2009 mining charter...
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