Michael Avery rightfully describes the scourge of political patronage, which hampers our mining industry (“Transference of mineral rights to state at the heart of mining’s collapse”, October 7).
But blaming state-owned mineral rights for the demise of SA’s mining industry is a red herring, shielding the true culprits. The real problem is that the local mining industry is being strangled by corrupt and incompetent politicians and officials abusing their positions in government. By doing so, they are furthermore abusing our perfectly workable mining legislation.
Added to the burden of patronage is BEE legislation, crumbling infrastructure and the implosion of Eskom.
In the run-up to the 1994 elections, the major concern of the SA miners was the possibility of the industry being nationalised, as advocated in the Freedom Charter. At the time, as a Wits University lecturer in mineral economics, I consulted people in academia, industry and politics, striving to find a workable alternative. In a research paper titled “Nationalisation of the Mines: An Equitable Alternative”, published in the South African Journal of Economics in 1990, I concluded that our mineral rights, not the mines, should be nationalised.
State-owned mineral rights are the international norm, rather than the exception to the rule. Australia has a thriving mining industry under a dispensation of state-owned mineral rights. Africa predominantly has state-owned mineral rights. A system of private mineral rights may ease exploration activities but also has its limitations. Fragmentation of rights and the sterilisation of large tracts of prospective land by large mining companies wanting to deter competition are problems experienced during our dispensation of private mineral rights.
With honest, competent officials appointed at the department of mineral resources, the issuing of timely prospecting and mining licences to those wanting to bring our mineral wealth to account should not be a problem. Getting rid of the corrupt politicians who may prevent them from doing their job, however, may be a tall order.
Dr Anton von Below
Mossel Bay
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