Mining Framework Agreement to assess socio-economic conditions of mineworkers: Department of Mineral Resources progress report

NCOP Land Reform, Environment, Mineral Resources and Energy

22 September 2015
Chairperson: Mr O Sefako (ANC; Northern Cape)
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Meeting Summary

The Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources received a briefing from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) on the progress made in the implantation of the Mining Framework to assess the socio-economic conditions of mine workers.

In July 2013 the Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry was developed. The framework consisted of five objectives which were discussed in detail.

Objective 1: Ensuring the rule of law, peace and stability

The South African Police Services (SAPS), mine management, mine security and trade unions are all collaborating on implementing the framework agreement. Awareness campaigns and engagements with traditional leaders were also taking place. Illegal mining stakeholder forums have been established. A total of 4,059 incidents of crimes were reported, and 761 people were arrested.These crimes included the illegal possession of gold and copper. The DMR has enforced municipal by-laws, established the Mine Crime Combating Forum (MCCF) and improved case management and capacity to speed up prosecutions. MCCFs have been established in North West, Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Gauteng.

Objective 2: Strengthening labour relations

With regards to resolution disputes, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) gave priority to referrals from the mining industry; it addressed matters as and when they were referred to it. The labour Relations Act amendments also came into operation on 1 January 2015. Some of the challenges around strengthening labour relations were that stakeholders needed to strengthen the full functionality of future forums to mitigate the negative impact of downscaling. In terms of managing retrenchments, mining companies were required to submit notices to the DMR and to the Department of Labour through theCCMA as required by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) Section 52, and Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.

Objective 3: Improving living and working conditions of mine workers

Accelerated efforts were being made to upgrade human settlements in mining towns. Mine workers were also being assisted with financial literacy and planning. In the 2014/15 financial year, more than R419 million was spent on a ring-fenced budget for informal settlement upgrading in prioritised mining towns in the Free State, Mpumalanga and in the North West provinces. Overall, 5000 units have been delivered in 15 prioritised mining towns. For the 2015/16 financial year the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) has aimed to improve this delivery figure and has ring-fenced R 1 billion to deliver approximately 19 000 housing opportunities in mining towns.  Housing for mineworkers remained a challenge. Although positive progress has been made in addressing housing and living conditions in the 15 prioritised mining towns, focus would be put on infrastructure bulk services.

Objective 4: Providing short to medium term measures to support growth

The DMR would ensure integration and implementation of Social and Labour Plans, and Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) in labour sending areas and mining areas.  The Mining Phakisa discussions, which would take place in October 2015, would also assist in resolving a number of mineral policy issues with regards to mineral beneficiation. Concerning transfer pricing, SARS and the Chamber of Mines have made presentations to the Technical Task Team and the findings were reported to the DMR. One of the key recommendations from SARS was that the country continue to work with the World Bank in creating an audit guide book to assist auditors in identifying and auditing transfer pricing within the mining the sectorThey also suggested that the DMR build capacity to ensure that employees could deal with large business tax payers, and were equipped to engage in the complexities of transfer pricing.

Objective five: Identifying long-term measures to support growth and stability

Potential job losses were also an emerging challenge which needed to be addressed. In response to challenges relating to job losses, the Minister of Mineral Resources convened a mining leadership retreat of organised business, organised labour and Government (DMR and DoL) to address the potential job losses in the mining industry. There was however, a need to enhance infrastructure to unlock the mineral development potential of the country.

Some of the questions raised by Members were: was Teba a private entity or a parastatal? Were there any extra measures taken to deal with the possession of illegal coal and copper? What investments did mining companies contribute towards the accommodation and housing of mine workers? What happened to the houses and accommodation facilities provided when the mines closed down? How were the municipal by-laws going to be enforced, who was going to be responsible for this? What were the other structures which would be involved other than the South African Police Services (SAPS)? How many convictions were reported and did the DMR get feedback on the status of the cases? Did the DMR have an indication of whether these illegal incidences involved workers within these mines, or did they primarily involve outsiders? What kind of engagements was the DMR involved with in the local mining communities? What kinds of structures did the DMR make use of to communicate with the local communities? To what extent was the agreement being implanted? What happened when the orders were not being complied to; where there any penalties issued, and have those penalties been complied with? Could the DMR confidently say that there was now peace and security within the mining sector? Were minority unions now being recognised? How often did the capacity building courses take place and were the qualifications recognised by industry? To what extent have the resolutions taken at the labour relations indaba implemented? What were the laws which required the DMR to send notices of retrenchments to the CCMA? He said Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were being developed in the Eastern Cape and in Limpopo; how were ex mine workers going to benefit from these? What role was the DMR in dealing with illicit cash outflows within the mining sector?

Members warned the DMR and indicated that a message should be sent to the DMR that the Committee has been observing that it and other departments did not prioritize meetings which took place within the National Council of Provinces. The delegation which departments send to the Committees did not include the Minister, the Deputy Minister of the Director-General, unlike the delegation sent to National Assembly Committee meetings. This would not be tolerated. In following meetings, if none of these senior members from the DMR were present, the meeting would not continue. In the last meeting the Deputy Minister was present and this was highly appreciated and the Committee hoped that this would continue. Parliament consisted of two Houses; the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. There was no senior house and junior house - these two Houses together formed Parliament. Information needed to be shared to both Houses equally.

Meeting report

Chairperson’s opening remarks

The Chairperson indicated that there were uncertainties facing the mining industry on a local and global scale. Commodities prices were also on the decline and this was a threat to job losses, burdening the economy. Government engagement was however much appreciated. The parties interested and affected by these challenges, such as trade unions and the business sectors have been involved in mitigating these circumstances to ensure that no major job losses took place.

Presentation: Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry – Department of Mineral Resources

Mr Joel Raphela, Deputy Director-General: Mineral Regulation, DMR, thanked the Committee for the invite. He apologized that the Director General, who was supposed to lead the presentation, was unable to attend. The Director General was assigned to represent the Minister in North West and both the Minister and the Deputy Minister were also unable to attend. He agreed that the mining industry was indeed faced with certain challenges but emphasized that it was important to note that the sector was circular in nature. Thus, from time to time, it went through cycles were commodity prices were in a depressed mode.

He indicated that in July 2013 the Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry was developed. The framework consisted of the following five objectives:

Ensuring the rule of law, peace and stability

Strengthening labour relations

Improving living and working conditions of mine workers

Providing short to medium term measures to support growth and stability

Identifying long-term measures to support growth and stability

With regard to ensuring the rule of law, peace and stability, he said that the DMR has enforced municipal by-laws, established the Mine Crime Combating Forum (MCCF) and improved case management and capacity to speed up prosecutions. MCCFs have been established in North West, Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Gauteng. The South African Police Services (SAPS), mine management, mine security and trade unions were all collaborating on implementing the framework agreement. Awareness campaigns, as well as engagements with traditional leaders, were also taking place. The revitalisation of distressed mining communities programme was responding to the integrated development planning and implementation in prioritised mining communities and labour sending areas. Illegal mining stakeholder forums have also been established. He indicated that 4059 incidents of crime were reported and 761 people were arrested. These were crimes including the illegal possession of gold and copper. Although there has been significant improvement in the working environment to promote peace and stability, there were still a number of community challenges which were being addressed through collaborative efforts. Illegal mining and theft of copper cables have been identified in certain areas. However, there were some inconsistencies at the MCCF meetings.

With regards to the strengthening of labour relations, he said the DMR has developed a protocol for verification of union membership and the principle of majoritarianism was being re-evaluated. When it comes to the resolution of disputes, the CCMA gave priority to referrals from the mining industry; it addressed matters as and when they were referred to it. The labour Relations Act amendments also came into operation on 1 January 2015. The CCMA made rulings on whether or not minority unions could be allowed to have the necessary recognition rights. Capacity building courses for employees and managers were continuously being provided by the Department of Labour and experts within the sector. They also provide training and outreach programmes on how to deal with conflict and how to bring cases on behalf of union members. A Labour Relations Indaba was held and a number of resolutions were agreed upon.

Some of the challenges around strengthening labour relations were that stakeholders needed to strengthen the full functionality of future forums to mitigate the negative impact of downscaling. In terms of managing retrenchments, mining companies were required to submit notices to the DMR and to the Department of Labour through the CCMA as required by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) Section 52, and Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.

With regard to improving living and working conditions of mine workers, he said accelerated efforts were being made to upgrade human settlements in mining towns. The DMR was initiating a process to transform the migrant labour system. Mine workers were also being assisted with financial literacy and planning. In the 2014/15 financial year more than R419 million was spent on a ring-fenced budget for informal settlement upgrading in prioritised mining towns in the Free State, Mpumalanga and in the North West provinces. Overall 5000 units have been delivered in 15 prioritised mining towns. For the 2015/16 financial year, the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) has aimed to improve this delivery figure and has ring-fenced R1 billion to deliver approximately 19 000 housing opportunities in mining towns.  Approximately 592 hectors of land has been acquired by municipalities supported by the DHS housing agency in mining towns. In Marikana two human settlement projects were being completed.These would deliver over 500 units built on land donated by Lonmin. They houses would cater for the community and for mine workers.

The Department of Water and Sanitation has, through engagements with municipalities and the Department of Cooperartive Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), prepared a high level water supply needs assessment for the 15 prioritised mining towns in five provinces. The Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI), Economic Development Department (EDD) and the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD) were facilitating both large and small scale industrial projects in the 15 mining towns, and in the labour sending areas. The Department of Health (DoH), together with the Departments of Labour and Mineral Resources,’ has been collaborating in establishing one stop service centers to assist ex mine workers with compensations, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and pension fund payments. One stop service centers have been established in the Eastern Cape (Mthatha) and in Gauteng (Carletonville). Mine work fatalities have also improved. The DMR was also committed to assisting mine workers with financial literacy and planning. The National Treasury and National Credit Regulator have recently undertaken regulatory steps that aimed at addressing employee indebtedness.

Mr Raphela indicated that housing for mineworkers remained a challenge.Although positive progress has been made in addressing housing and living conditions in the 15 prioritised mining towns, focus would be put on infrastructure bulk services. Access to mineworker information held by Teba, which was needed to identify mineworkers eligible for compensation, was still a challenge. This was owing to the fact that Teba was selling the information. Discussions were ongoing. A database of current and ex mine workers would be developed and could be accessed by stakeholders. With regard to proving short to medium term measures to support growth and stability, Mr. Raphela said that the DMR would ensure integration and implementation of Social and Labour Plans, as well as Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) in labour sending and mining areas. The MPRDA Amendment Bill was still being reviewed by parliament. Once finalised, it would bring policy certainty within the sector. The Mining Phakisa discussions would also assist in resolving a number of mineral policy issues with regards to mineral beneficiation. Pertaining to enforcement and implementation and the commitments of the Mining Charter, he said the Mining Charter assessments for 2014 targets have been completed and enforcement was taking place. To date, 463 orders had been issued in respect to the Mining Charter and non-compliance -204 have been issued in respect of Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and non-compliance. Relating to transfer pricing, he said SARS and Chamber of Mines have made presentations to the Technical Task Team. The findings were as follows:

In the last five years, 28 audits were conducted and seven were in the mining/extractive industry

The total value of the assessed audits was R20 billion. R9 billion of the assessment was from the (mining/extractive industry)

A total R5.8 billion was identified as Transfer mis-pricing which is regarded as an abuse of Transfer pricing.  Out of the R5.8 billion, R3.4 billion was from (mining/extractive industry)

The analysis indicates that there was transfer mis-pricing within the mining and extractive industries

Transfer pricing was an issue which the country needed to monitor continuously. One of the key recommendations from SARS was that the country continue to work with the World Bank in creating an audit guide book to assist auditors in identifying and auditing transfer pricing within the mining the sector. They also suggested that the DMR build capacity to ensure that employees could deal with large business tax payers, and were equipped to engage in the complexities of transfer pricing. Potential job losses were also an emerging challenge which needed to be addressed. In response to challenges relating to job losses, the Minister of Mineral Resources convened a mining leadership retreat of organised business, organised labour and Government (DMR and DoL) to address the potential job losses in the mining industry. All stakeholders (Government, National Union of Mineworkers, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union [AMCU], Chamber of Mines, South African Mining Development Association [SAMDA], Solidarity and United Association of South Africa [UASA] ) participated. Mining Phakisa has been formally announced by His Excellency President Jacob Zuma. The outcomes of Mining Phakisa would be considered in the development of a long term strategy for the mining industry. Preparations for Mining Phakisa have commenced and the Phakisa would be held in October 2015. There was however a need to enhance infrastructure to unlock the mineral development potential of the country.

Discussion

The Chairperson thanked the DMR for an informative presentation. He asked whether Teba was a private entity or whether it was a parastatal historically. Information needed to be given on the serious issues around the health of mineworkers.

Mr A Singh (ANC; KwaZulu Natal) asked about the 4059 incidents of cases reported since 2012; were these incidences of illegal mining or did they also include general crimes. Were there any extra measures taken to deal with the possession of illegal coal and copper? What investments did mining companies contribute towards the accommodation and housing of mine workers? Dealing with housing and accommodation put a huge strain on municipalities in these mining areas. Also, what happened to these houses and accommodation facilities when the mines closed down?

Ms C Labuschagne (DA; Western Cape) how were the municipal by-laws going to be enforced, who was going to be responsible for this? What were the other structures which would be involved other than the South African Police Services (SAPS)? She asked about the revitalization of distressed mining companies - was the DMR aware of the fact that in some areas the cooperation between the mining sector and local government was as how it should be? Members picked up on these problems during some oversight visits; what was the DMR doing about this? How many convictions were reported and did the DMR get feedback on the status of the cases? Did the DMR have an indication of whether these illegal incidences involved workers within these mines, or did they primarily involve outsiders? With regards to the DMR’s interventions to ensure sustainability and rule of law; what kind of engagements was the DMR involved with in the local mining communities? What kinds of structures did the DMR make use of to communicate with the local communities?

Mr M Rayi (ANC; Eastern Cape) said the report indicated that there were a number of agreements which have been entered into during the implementation of the framework and the Mining Charter; there were also 204 orders pertaining to the Mining Charter, and 406 orders dealing with environmental issues. To what extent was the agreement being implanted? What happened when the orders were not being complied to? Were there any penalties issued, and have those penalties been complied with? He said the Committee appreciated the MCC Forum which looked at a number of critical areas such as the rule of law; but it was worrisome that the DMR indicated sometimes non-attendance was a problem. These meetings were very important. What was the DMR doing to ensure that these meetings were taken seriously? Could the DMR confidently say that there was now peace and security within the mining sector? Were minority unions now being recognised? He said the fact that the matter of minority unions was left to the CCMA to decide would lead to some inconsistencies, there should be an Act in place to avoid these inconsistencies because the matter of minority unions affected all industries.

How often did the capacity building courses take place and were the qualifications recognised by industry? To what extent have the resolutions taken at the labour relations indaba implemented? What were the laws which required the DMR to send notices of retrenchments to the CCMA? He said Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were being developed in the Eastern Cape and in Limpopo. How were ex mine workers going to benefit from these? In the presentation the DMR mentioned that the department was working towards formalizing informal settlements.What did this involve? What was the role of stakeholders who collaborated with mining companies and the DMR? With regard to the upgrading of human settlements for mine workers, he asked whether the DMR had any measures in place to ensure that the houses provided by the DMR were not sold off for profit while the occupants the houses were intended for continued to live in shacks and other informal settlements. He said it was concerning that fatalities within the gold and coal sector seemed to be increasing instead of decreasing. In 2014 gold fatalities were 44 while they were 37 in 2013. The same was true for coal - there were seven fatalities in 2013 and nine in 2014 - what were the reasons for this?

Mr E Mlambo (ANC; Gauteng) said when the Committee was doing oversight in some of the mining towns, there was a feeling among community residents that labour sending areas were benefiting more than other areas; these labour sending towns were developing and mine workers from these towns were also receiving benefits such as housing from the mining companies. Was the DMR aware of these grievances and how would they be addressed?

The Chairperson said the Committee paid an oversight visit to the eastern side of the platinum belt district. Companies such as Lonmin were visited. He said quite a number of ex mine workers were facing serious health-related challenges. With regard to labour-sending, he said historically the mining sector was one of the pillars which played a significant role in boosting South Africa’s economy and workers came from all over, the majority of which came from the Eastern Cape. He said the emergence of tribalism and regionalism where people were of the view that people who were form outside these mining areas were coming to take their jobs. He said awareness needed to be created within these mining communities around the social labour plans. The bigger picture was to develop South Africa. He said it was possible that the President sent back the MPRDA Bill because there were still gaps which needed to be addressed by Parliament to ensure that all stakeholders were engaged. He asked about the illicit outflow of cash from the mining sector; what role was the DMR playing in this regard?

Ms Labuschagne asked about the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Small Business Development taking up small and large scale industrial development projects within mining towns and within the labour sending areas. Were there any plans to spread this kind of work to other small and rural towns, other than those within the mining sector? She asked about Mining Phakisa which would be held in October this year; when would the Committee be receiving the outcome of this? She said high level water supply needed assessment for the 15 prioritised mines; what were the timelines for this and how would the surrounding mining communities be affected? Water was a scarce resource, and the costs of water within the mining sector were quite high.

Mr Raphela thanked Members for the questions. He responded to the question around the statistics relating to the various kinds of crimes which the DMR reported on. He said these were general crimes which were identified within the mining areas. However, they did not exclude incidences of illegal mining. Mechanisms have been put in place by the police to manage these situations but the detailed reports from SAPS could not be shared publicly because some included names of arrested parties and information about ongoing court cases. With regards to the investments of mining companies into housing for mine workers, he said the reports indicated that so far only government was investing in housing for mine workers. However, the DMR was working to ensure that there was a balance and that mining companies also invested in mining communities.  There were a number of partnerships between government and mining companies in various forms. Mining companies had legal obligations to do certain things.

With regard to what happened to the houses provided when the mines closed, he said the approach taken by government was to move away from having mine villages, and to rather have integrated human settlements so that mine workers were integrated into society. But while mining was active, associated economic activities needed to be created so that there would be elements of sustainability to avoid “ghost towns” when mining activity declined. Socio-economic diagnostic studies were therefore being conducted to identify other levers which needed to be deployed when there was still economic activity of a sustainable nature. With regard to the enforcement of by-laws and how this would be done he said this was a collaborative process between stakeholders - various arms of government had a responsibility to participate in the enforcement of by-laws. The Department of Traditional Affairs and Cooperative Governance (Gogta) was responsible for municipalities. Therefore, when there were gaps pertaining to enforcement, these were dealt with at a higher level. Pertaining to the question around the DMR’s awareness around relations between mines and municipalities were not on good working relations and what the DMR was doing to assist, he said the DMR was aware of the challenges pertaining to municipalities, as and when these were identified interventions were put in place to ensure that these differences did not stand in the way of development. He said the DMR was also aware of the disputes between mine companies and traditional leaders in some communities. Where necessary the DMR would call on the intervention from higher authorities such as the Premier in those areas.

With regard to the mechanisms used by the DMR to deal with peace and stability within mining communities, he said the DMR used the Mine Crime Combating Forums to engage communities and traditional leaders. He responded to the questions around orders issued and mechanism which were in place to monitor these, he said once the orders were issued they had to be confirmed for them to remain legally binding and valid with clear timeframes, if they were not implemented, they may lead to a suspension of an operation or taking steps towards moving towards the cancellation of a right. There were a few companies which were sitting with orders to cancel the orders; the DMR has found this to be effective. This was however a contested space. This was therefore an area which the DMR took very seriously. He responded to the questions asked around challenges with non-attendance on the MCC Forum, he said this was also an area of concern to the DMR, the Forum was a product of stakeholder collaborations, therefore all stakeholders were required to continually participate. All incidents of non-attendance were reported on and were presented in the DMRs quarterly report. He assured Members that there was a monitoring mechanism in place for the implementation of the framework. Stakeholders were also required to go back and give feedback to their principals.

With regards to whether the DMR could confidently say there was peace and stability within the mining sector, he said the sector has improved, if the framework was removed or any efforts to stabilize the industry, the industry would be different. The country needed to aware of the fact that the sector was moving out from a regrettable past, which involved loss of lives. There were still challenges the sector faced, but these have improved. The framework agreement has had significant contributions to this. However the current shedding of jobs was an area of concern and the DMR was working to address this. With regard to the question on courses, he said the qualifications certificates were not just for attendance, the intention of these courses were for capacity building. With regard to implementing the labour relations indaba and its implementation he said the DMR could provide the Committee with written write up indicating what progress has been made on this indaba. A lot has been done in this regard. With regard to the law and notice of retrenchments he said the Labour Relations Act was very clear on this. The MPRDA was the principle legislation used by the DMR; Section 52 stated that most companies which dealt with management of downscaling or retrenching were required to notify the Minister, this was also linked to regulation 46 of the MPRDA which also has a part dealing with retrenchments. These two were therefore looked at in coming together with the framework. The challenge was that there were instances where retrenchments were below 10% or below 500, so the companies were not breaking any laws. There would also be voluntary separation packages agreements within the mines. With regard to how ex mine workers will benefit from SEZs, he said noting the challenges experienced IDZs, the intervention package for saving jobs was multifold, mine workers need to benefit from these. The DMR was committed to job creation. He said the problem was that some of the informal settlements were not formalized; the process of formalization of the land was that the area would need to be declared a township and there were a host of policy interventions which needed to be in place to ensure that the services were rendered. The most important thing to understand was that the ranking of the informal settlements was very important; some of the informal settlements were on land which could not be utilised for purposes of human settlements.

Mr Xolile Mbonambi, Chief Director: Mine Health Safety, DMR, responded and said it was regrettable that in 2014 the figures for fatalities went up, he said in 2014 the sector faced a disaster around the gold mine where nine employees died all at once as a result of a fire. The DMR has ensured that all the issues relating to fire were addressed by guidelines and were minimized. Although the figures were still high there has been an improvement, so far the DMR only received 28 cases of fatalities, the DMR hoped that by the end of 2015, these figures would remain low. In the case of coal, he said the smaller mines which had recently received their permits to start working; he said there was a gap in ensuring that these small mines worked according to set standards. The DMR has therefore introduced a regional forums established to improve fatalities moving forward.

Mr Raphela responded to the question around outcomes from the oversights done in mining towns, he said there was a need to manage the potential conflicts between the labour sending areas and the mining towns. The point made by the Member in this regard has been taken note of. In the rollout of services, both in host communities and in labour sending areas, care was taken that all challenges were addressed. He said the point raised by the Chairperson on extractive illicit outflows was a very important one, commonly referred to as transfer pricing challenges. This area was being dealt with in a collaborative manner by various organs of state. A lot of work was taking place behind the scenes and government was committed to concluding all the work and audits it was undertaking. There was a need however to capacitate this area. The South African Revenue Services (SARS) was a lead implementing agent in the matter. With regards to matters pertaining to the health of ex mine workers he said the DMR would like to make a commitment to come back to the Committee and provide more detailed information within the next 14 days. He also indicated that social labour plans needed to be properly aligned to the IDPs of municipalities. With regard to whether there were gaps within the MPRDA he said the amendments which were currently before Parliament still needed to address the issue of penalties.

Mr Mbonambi responded to the question around Teba, he said the DMR was also surprised as to why Teba was reluctant to give information. This information would assist ex mine workers. Currently the DMR was busy engaging Teba and the Chamber of Mines to make sure that the information needed by the DMR was given freely. These discussions were still ongoing.

Ms Labuschagne asked about the information Teba was selling; who were they selling it to, the DMR?

Mr Mbonambi said the information was not sold to the DMR. Teba was responsible for coordinating information around mineworkers, and they have kept all this information. This information was necessary for ex mine workers to be able to make certain claims. Teba therefore wanted some compensation to be able to disburse this information. The DMR has been engaging with Teba, indicating what the implementations of these demands were, with assistance from the Chamber of Mines because Teba used to work for the Chamber.

The Chairperson said he was not sure whether Teba was a private company or whether it was a parastatal. Could the DMR provide clarity on this? He said while on their oversight visits, the Committee realised that members of the Community did not understand the dolomite and the danger of this. Could the DMR also share information on dolomite and why it was dangerous? On mining phakisa, he said when the process concluded feedback would be provided to the Committee.

Mr Raphela said Teba used to be a private entity, which was why the DMR was not struggling to get this information. On the question on dolomite and its danger, he indicated that when people built houses on a dolomatic area it has the potential to cause serious holes because of its nature, therefore in areas like Pretoria, before any structure was constructed there needed to be proper tests conducted to avoid issues around sink holes. Dolomite was linked to sink holes affecting built structures.

Mr Rayi asked about the role of stakeholders in the provision of water, sanitation and housing; which companies were responsible for doing what and how was government contributing? With regard to the orders; how many companies would be penalized and what were the names of these companies who were failing to comply with these orders? Could the DMR provide the Committee with plans around SEZs and agriparks?

Mr Raphela responded to the question around the role of government in the provision of services and housing structures, he said generally when there was going to be development, government provided bulk infrastructure, if it was a mine; the mine would be responsible for the actual development of houses. However there were instances where there was collaboration between the private sector, mining companies and government in the provision of basic services. This would all be done to ensure that development was not delayed. In order to prevent RDP houses from being sold to civil servants, he said the DMR needed to get some information from the Department of Human Settlements; he requested that this information be provided to the Committee at a later stage. With regard to the orders issued he said this was an area the DMR took very seriously. The orders issued were to remedy noncompliance, if the noncompliance was not addressed the matter was escalated, this might lead to a suspension of a mine operation or a process to cancel the right because of noncompliance. Those who were sitting with orders to remedy and did not remedy, there were consequences. The suspension would only be lifted when the regulator was satisfied with the remedy taken for noncompliance. Monitoring was an ongoing process. The area of noncompliance was being taken very seriously especially because of the threat to job losses. Employees should not be punished for the non-compliance of the mining companies.

Mr Rayi asked that the DMR provide the Committee with the list of over 300 orders with regard to the Mining Charter and those which have graduated to the next level since the orders were issued.

Mr Raphela thanked the Committee for the opportunity provided for the DMR to come and provide a briefing to the Committee. The framework report was a product of a collaborative effort with other stakeholders, including those from organized labour and organized business. The DMR remained committed to updating and sharing information with Members regarding the work the DMR was doing in stabilizing the mining industry.

Mr Rayi said a message should be sent to the DMR that the Committee has been observing that the DMR and other departments did not prioritize meetings which took place within the National Council of Provinces. The delegation which departments send to the Committees did not include the Minister, the Deputy Minister of the Director-General, unlike the delegation sent to National Assembly Committee meetings. This would not be tolerated. In following meetings, if none of these senior members from the DMR were present, the meeting would not continue. In the last meeting the Deputy Minister was present and this was highly appreciated and the Committee hoped that this would continue.

The Chairperson said questions which the DMR has committed to responding to in writing should be submitted to the Committee by Friday, 25 September 2015. He indicated that Parliament consisted of two Houses; the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. There was no senior house and junior house, these two Houses together formed Parliament. Information needed to be shared to both Houses equally.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

 

 

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