On Wednesday, the Cabinet endorsed appointing Thabo Mokoena as director-general of the Department of Mineral Resources from April 1.
"Everyone is scrambling to find out more about him. We really know nothing about him at all," said a mining industry figure who declined to be named.
The position of Department of Mineral Resources director-general has been vacant for more than a year. David Msiza, the chief inspector of mines, has doubled as acting director-general since Thibedi Ramontja stepped down at the end of 2015.
The department said Mokoena was an advocate and former secretary of the Free State legislature. He had a law degree from the University of the Western Cape and a postgraduate diploma in law.
Mokoena’s most pressing tasks would include the finalisation and gazetting of the third iteration of the mining charter by the end-March deadline, which Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane set at the Mining Indaba in February.
He will also have to steer the finalisation of the amendments of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), which have been in the pipeline since 2012. Zwane set the end of June as the deadline for the promulgation of the amendments.
"We have often, in recent times, spoken of the need for regulatory certainty on a mutually acceptable basis, particularly in respect of the amendments to the MPRDA, the mining charter and, for example, implementation of safety regulations. Such developments would be good for industry and investor confidence," Chamber of Mines CEO Roger Baxter said on Wednesday, in response to SA’s latest ranking as a mining destination.
In the Fraser Institute’s latest survey of industry figures about global mining jurisdictions, SA’s ranking weakened to 74 out of 109 jurisdictions, compared to 66 out of 109 a year earlier.
Peter Leon, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, said SA was now the third-least attractive mining country in Africa. "It is clear that it is becoming increasingly urgent for the government to provide the necessary regulatory certainty for the mining industry," he said.
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