Mining Policy In The New South Africa/ANC tones down its more radical proposals as government, companies, and labor seek compromise and consensus

摘要

At the South African Chamber of Mines 104th AGM in early 1995 President Mandela is reported to have said: "It is in the interests of stability and investor confidence that the healthy and necessary debate on such a policy [mining industry policy] should soon find its way to consensus." Nelson Mandela continued: "I wish to assure you [the industry]) that the government will play its part. He went on to indicate that not even the question of mineral ownership might be undisputed: "..[T]he resources of our nation, under whatever form of ownership, will be stewarded with regards for the urgent need to uplift particularly the most disadvantaged of our society." These statements indicated a change in ANC mineral policy as compared to the radical proposals made only a year earlier. Soon after, the negotiation process that stopped almost directly after Pik Botha was appointed Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs got going again. In April 1995, Minister Botha convened a first meeting to set out a process of policy formulation. There have been pressures from several sides to restart negotiations. The Chamber of Mines has been lobbying, and the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Energy Affairs, formerly the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), official, Marcel Golding, has been active. This committee is responsible in parliament for mineral and energy policy issues. Through the pragmatic, albeit sometimes hasty, work of its chairman, it has, despite being almost a one-man show, gradually developed to become another important player in the policy-formulating process. Marcel Golding is by some observers believed to become the next minister of Minerals and Energy, if and when a reshuffle of the South African Cabinet takes place.