I don't mean to sound superior, but I had to chuckle at Business Day’s lead story on Monday. A perfectly sound piece of reporting, of course.It said Enoch Godongwana, head of the governing ANC’s economic transformation committee, believed the mining industry and the mining minister, Gupta-controlled Mosebenzi Zwane, were poised to negotiate rather than continue legal action over the future of the Mining Charter.The Chamber of Mines has initiated court action and Zwane, having said he wanted to talk more, seems swiftly to have changed his mind and before Monday’s story appeared had been threatening to go ahead and bring a renewed Mining Charter into law, making clear that the 26% "target" was in fact a floor in perpetuity.What amused me is that it is so obvious what the political posing hides. The ANC has read the tea leaves and is horrified. Zwane is, to put it politely, not smart. Just last week, he was threatening to start a state-owned bank to help the Guptas pay their staff. But...
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