The Chamber of Mines on Monday welcomed reports that the African National Congress’s national executive committee (NEC) had resolved to “investigate successful models that could be considered on the role of the state in mining”.
Chief executive of the Chamber of Mines Zoli Diliza said he was particularly pleased that the ANC had resolved to use researchers who were independent of the ANC.
“This approach will not only increase the credibility of the findings but will also ensure a wider support of those findings once the investigation has been completed.
“We hope that, once appointed, the researchers will investigate all the potential roles of the state in mining. These could, for instance, include the role of a state mining company and identifying the necessary conditions that are conducive to the rapid growth and transformation of the industry.”
Diliza said the chamber had already undertaken a “significant amount of research” into the role of the state in mining and would make this body of research available to the researchers.
“The chamber will also engage with the ANC on how the mining industry can assist with the investigation.”
“The ANC will appoint two senior researchers and a project manager to investigate successful models that could be considered on the role of the state in mining,” secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.
“We are engaging the research institutions to provide researchers to the project,” he said in a statement following the last ANC NEC meeting of the year.
The party’s economic transformation committee would provide terms of reference for the research and would also provide a reference group to oversee the work on behalf of the NEC. — Sapa