NUM tables new plan for state mining
Florence de Vries, Business Report, Johannesburg, 31 May 2010
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Friday challenged
previous proposals on the structure of a proposed state-owned mining firm.
And it said nationalisation of existing mines should remain
on the agenda.
Addressing Parliament's portfolio committee on mining at the
weekend, NUM spokesman Madoda Sambatha said the union gave its full backing to
the establishment of a state-owned mining company and called for it to be
established by June next year.
Sambatha opposed the idea of the state owning the majority
stake in the company and said private investors, "irrespective of race or
gender", should hold 49 percent while the state held only 31 percent.
"A further 10 percent shareholding should be allocated
to an employee share ownership scheme and another 10 percent is to go to the
community, traditional authorities or worker co-operatives," said
Sambatha.
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema last week proposed
that the state hold a minimum of 60 percent shares in the company and that
private corporations would hold the remaining 40 percent and be responsible for
the payment of royalties and taxes.
Matt Brenzel, a portfolio manager for Cadiz Asset
Management, said NUM's proposal appeared to favour private investors, but that
"the state could co-opt the other shareholders in a blocking move".
"It would also have to be established how the projects
will be funded and whether state resources will be utilised, because if the
state chips in the money, one has to wonder whether these resources could be
better utilised elsewhere.
"Interestingly, there might be private investors for
whom the profit motive is not that important, whereas security of supply is.
China is a vast consumer of resource products and might be less sensitive to
the profit argument, as long as its appetite is fed," he said.
Sambatha also said there was a need for a comprehensive
mining strategy, which he believed was not currently the case. "The
National Planning Commission, the Department of Mineral Resources, organised
labour and organised business should play the most active role in this
regard."
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