EDITORIAL: Ramaphosa’s deepening Mantashe problem

There is increasing disquiet in the corridors of power that there may be more than one Mantashe running things in the department of mineral resources & energy (DMRE).

For the second time, the courts have been called upon to resolve a mining industry impasse that includes disturbing allegations that members of minister Gwede Mantashe’s family have attempted to sway matters to further their own interests. 

The latest claim is that Mantashe’s wife, Nolwandle, leant on investors in a Northern Cape manganese project for a shareholding and, when they refused, those investors were stripped of their rights. It illustrates the need for a much deeper look into the governance, and decision-making, of the DMRE.    

The claims aren’t without precedent. In 2015, the Daily Dispatch reported on a R631m toilet tender scandal involving Nolwandle and one of the Mantashes’ sons, Buyambo. In 2019, public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane cleared Gwede  of using his influence in that tender. 

The new court papers in the Northern Cape manganese project — reported first by the Mail & Guardian but since obtained by the FM — are just as disturbing.

In those papers, the DMRE is accused of unlawfully transferring the Kareepan mining rights from one company, Misty Falls 45, to another company linked to Nolwandle and a man describing himself as her nephew, Kaya Gqosha.

Misty Falls 45 has interdicted the department from transferring the rights until its appeal against the decision is finalised, but the department has now moved to suspend the company’s mining rights.

On August 22, the lawyers representing Misty Falls 45 wrote: “The minister of mineral resources & energy, Gwede Mantashe, has an undisclosed interest in this matter as his wife, Mrs Nolwandle Mantashe, and Mr Kaya Gqosha, who has presented himself as her nephew, were instrumental in unlawfully attempting to obtain the mining right.”

Court papers say Nolwandle met one of the Misty Falls 45 investors in Cape Town three years ago. “She made it clear that if the directors of [the company] are obstructive in this process to transfer the mining right … she would through her husband have [this] mining right taken away.”

These new allegations come months after similar claims about “a close family member” of Mantashe’s popped up in the tender for SA’s emergency power, which was awarded to Turkish company Karpowership — though Nolwandle wasn’t named directly.

These sorts of claims are becoming too frequent for President Cyril Ramaphosa to ignore. 

When Mantashe was appointed mining minister in February 2018 after his disastrous predecessor Mosebenzi Zwane, there was some hope that finally the department would be steered by someone with a strong grasp of the sector.

As a former general secretary of the once mighty National Union of Mineworkers,  Mantashe was an obvious choice.

But while industry players say he is consultative and does give an ear to their concerns, there is growing frustration that he merely listens, but does nothing more.

In the energy sector, it is  well known that Mantashe was dead set against raising the threshold for embedded generation projects from 1MW to 100MW, a move that Ramaphosa called crucial to reforming the energy sector.

It is axiomatic that it’s unacceptable for Mantashe’s wife, or any family member, to be fiddling in mining deals — much less using his name as leverage.

Though it is awkward for Ramaphosa, since he has come to rely on Mantashe’s loyalty in ANC power struggles, he can’t ignore this any longer.