Minister Gwede Mantashe was attending the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town and was meant to address the Joburg Mining Indaba via video link. Bernard Swanepoel, the colourful former CEO of Harmony Gold who runs the Mining Indaba, could not contain his anger at Mantashe’s no-show, saying the minister had “arrogantly” pulled out instead of addressing an industry that is a key part of his portfolio. 

Swanepoel said the Department of Minerals Resources and Energy (DMRE) had offered one or other low-level functionary to speak in Mantashe’s place, but he basically told them to take a hike. Instead, he offered former Anglo CEO Mark Cutifani the slot to give the speech the industry would have liked to hear the minister give. He did not quite do that, but as always, he delivered a thoughtful discourse in his Australian twang. 

But first, let’s return to the minister and the middle finger he raised to the industry. 

One theme, like a broken record at the Indaba, has been the lack of progress on replacing the utterly broken Samrad system with a transparent mining cadastre for processing applications linked to the industry. 

In February 2021, the shocking scale of the dysfunction at the DMRE was thrown into sharp relief when it was revealed in Parliament that there was a backlog of 5,326 applications for mining and related rights – a bottleneck that chokes badly needed investment, especially for exploration. And without exploration, you can’t have new mines. It’s as simple as that. 

Mantashe told the Mining Indaba last year that “progress” had been made, but declined to give any numbers, raising suspicions that little had been done – or that the DMRE could not provide the data because it had simply been overwhelmed.  

“Kindly note that from February 2021, the number of mining rights applications that have been adjudicated is 114, while the number of prospecting rights applications adjudicated is 493,” the DMRE said in an emailed response to Business Maverick last year. 

The problem with that response was that it still gave no indication about the size of the backlog, because other applications had presumably since been lodged. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Exclusive: Government (sort of) clarifies reduction in mining application backlog”

The nonsense has since continued, with no real solution offered by the DMRE beyond pointing fingers at the State IT Agency. In April, the department told Business Maverick that the number had been reduced to below 4,000, but it is revealing that it will not – or cannot – provide a precise number.

DMRE makes progress on applications backlog, blames Sita for cadastre conundrum

For its part, the industry has long argued that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. In South Africa, there are two companies with off-the-shelf cadastral systems that could be bought – the industry has even offered to contribute to the funding – and be up and running in probably a matter of months. 

Roger Baxter, CEO of the main industry umbrella group, the Minerals Council SA, told the conference in response to questions on Wednesday that this was still the sector’s preferred option, and that it had not given up on this scenario. Swanepoel also spoke briefly about the unfolding cadastre disaster on Thursday morning when he was fuming about Mantashe’s no-show.

The critical thing about a mining cadastre is that it brings transparency to the industry. It is an online portal that is open to the public. It provides comprehensive geological data about a country or mining jurisdiction, provides information on mining permits that have been issued, including expiry dates, and lists available mining or prospecting rights and so on.

In short, it would shine a light on the corruption and incompetence that clearly define the DMRE. Mantashe and his department are increasingly – and transparently – giving the impression that they don’t want that light switched on. It’s just that obvious. And the minister is also probably tired of being badgered about it at mining conferences.

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Meanwhile, investment and growth opportunities in the mining sector are being squandered because of this sordid episode of wider state failure. 

Also on Thursday morning, Mantashe said on Twitter that on Friday he would be addressing an ANC event in the Western Cape, which shows where his priorities lie. It’s all about the party and the cadres – just look at the debacle around the cadastre. Swanepoel quipped to the conference that if the minister could revive the ANC in the Western Cape, then he could raise the dead. 

For his part, Cutifani made a number of sensible comments and he did so, under the circumstances, in his typically diplomatic fashion. 

He reiterated points he’s made before; that the mining sector is simply crucial to everyday life in the 21st century: “If it’s not grown, it’s mined.” 

“Without our products, we could only produce less than 50% of the food being produced today. We could only feed half the planet. A lot of people don’t understand that. Fertilisers and mechanised farming systems are all supported by products from our industry,” Cutifani said. 

He also noted that mining needed to be profitable to be sustainable. 

Many of these and other points he made are obvious. So is the minister’s failure to address issues that are critical to the industry and South Africa’s economic wellbeing. 

South Africa’s mining sector had such a bad relationship with Mantashe’s predecessor, the alleged Gupta puppet Mosebenzi Zwane – who has now been charged for his alleged role in the Estina Dairy project which left poor emerging farmers in the Free State high and dry – that the Minerals Council at one point stopped talking to him and would not even show up at events where he spoke. 

Now its relations with Mantashe have cooled, and it’s the minister who is not pitching up. (For Zwane, the lure was probably always the free food – a cadre has to chow.) 

It’s a pity, because, as Cutifani pointed out, mining is critical. It needs a regulator that is not distracted by miracles such as the resurrection of the Western Cape ANC. And if South Africa ever gets a functional cadastre, that too will be a miracle. DM/BM