‘Communities are becoming poorer by the day’, says Macua following Ramaphosa’s address at Mining Indaba

The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) has expressed its disappointment in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks at the Mining Indaba.

The Mining Indaba is taking place in Cape Town this week.

In his keynote address on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said gone are the days when corporates ignored their workers in terms of their livelihoods and mining communities.

Executive Director of Macua, Christopher Rutlege says what Ramaphosa said was not true.

“Of the 1.2 trillion that they claim to have produced in the country, less than 1% of that they claim to send back or to put back into the development of communities. Our research has found that between 70-80% of that money is not reaching communities; in fact, communities are becoming poorer by the day. Added to that is the simple fact that the Minister of Mineral Resources made a commitment to mining-affected communities after we delivered 50000 petitions to parliament that they will engage us around this concept of free-prior and informed consent. He has not kept his promises, in fact, he called a meeting once and cancelled at the last minute and we haven’t heard from him since, it is a year later,” says Rutlege.

Video: President Ramaphosa addresses the 2022 Investing in African Mining Indaba

President Ramaphosa says there’s a need to fix the regulatory and administrative problems

President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged that the mining industry’s regulatory problems must be addressed, saying an effective exploration strategy needs to be implemented. Ramaphosa delivered the keynote address at the 2022 Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Tuesday.

He says a modern and efficient cadastral system should be implemented to help boost the mining industry.

“We understand very clearly the need to fix the regulatory and administrative problems that have crept into the system. We need to clear the backlog of mining and prospecting rights and mineral rights, transfer applications and put in place a modern and much more efficient cadastral system, and implement an effective exploration strategy. “

The South African mining industry has continued to be resilient during the coronavirus pandemic.

“In South Africa, mining registered a growth of 11.8 % in  2021, the highest across all industries. Last year the sector recovered production to almost pre-COVID levels. This was the result of significant collaboration between the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and the Minerals Council South Africa, including efforts to keep the sector operational during the hard lockdowns in the pandemic’s early stages,” said Ramaphosa.

President Ramaphosa added that the government is working together with other stakeholders to deal with challenges the industry is facing including illegal mining.

“Working together with the industry and other stakeholders, we are strengthening the capacity of our security services and law enforcement agencies to tackle illegal mining, cable theft, and general damage to infrastructure.  We value our ongoing collaboration with the Minerals Council South Africa to resolve these and other challenges facing the industry.”