Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe. (Gallo)
Minister of Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe will on Thursday morning brief members of the media on the finalised version of the Mining Charter.
The long-awaited release of a renewed charter comes a week after Minister of Communications Nomvula Mokonyane confirmed that it had been approved by Cabinet.
The charter caused bad blood between industry employers organisation the Chamber of Mines and former Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, with the chamber — now the Minerals Council South Africa — threatening court action to stop it being instituted.
It took the intervention of President Cyril Ramaphosa in February to bring both parties back to the negotiating table. Ramaphosa named Gwede Mantashe as new minister of mineral resources in late February.
In June, Mantashe committed to developing a charter which would ensure mine workers and mining communities reaped the benefits of mining companies’ operations, while shielding companies from unnecessary volatility. In July, the department held a summit to discuss latest version of the charter with the industry and social partners. A draft version of the charter for public comment was published shortly thereafter.
Solidarity said it was confident that the latest version of the charter would have as few points of contention as possible for the mining sector and labour.
The briefing is set to take place at 10am in Pretoria. — Fin24