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Tuesday, 24 October 2017 11:11

Business Report writes that Deputy Mineral Resources Minister Godfrey Oliphant said on Monday that Lily Mine was expected to return to production.  He also told the Bench Marks Foundation conference that the container where three mine workers have been trapped since February last year was likely to be retrieved by as early as January.

He said the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) had agreed to inject the cash needed in order to return the mine to production.

This was after attempts by the mine’s business rescue practitioner to attract investors fell through.

In August merger talks between Toronto-listed Galane Gold and Vantage Goldfields that were aimed at reviving production at Lily Mine collapsed at the last minute.

The failure of the talks was a major setback for Lily workers and the surrounding community, which depend on the mine for an income.

Another promise by Brian Barrett, the chief executive of Canadian gold-mining company AfroCan Resources, to take over the mine fell through amid allegations of fraud.

The collapse of the Galane transaction meant that creditors, including the workers, would have to wait before they received their outstanding money.

“The business rescue practitioner failed three or four times to get investors to fund

the reopening of the mine,” Oliphant said. “We called him a month ago to say we will give you a last chance to raise the money.”

Oliphant blamed the shareholders for rejecting a proposal to approach the IDC for funds.

“The IDC was willing to provide funds to develop the shaft, but the mine managers rejected the funds as they sought more money. We are now back to square one again. We are back

with IDC,” said Oliphant.

Vantage Gold Field went bankrupt after the collapse at Lily Mine. It was forced to close operations in both Lily Mine and Baabrook.

Lily employees Yvonne Mnisi, Pretty Nkambule and Solomon Nyerende remain trapped in an underground container that collapsed in an accident last year.

Rob Devereux, from Sturns business rescue practitioners, yesterday said that the IDC

had in fact agreed to inject R310 million to revive the mine and retrieve the container.

Several jobs would be preserved at Lily Mine and Barbrook, with the R310m from IDC.

Devereux said that in fact Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane had made a proposal in November to shareholders which was rejected.

“Zwane’s proposal was for the IDC to invest all the money, meaning that shareholders would walk away with only R1.

“The shareholders had invested R900m in the mine and they made a counter proposal. Hence I could not move forward with the proposal,” he said.

He said his role would be to preserve jobs.

“I am not interested in shareholders, my role is to preserve jobs, open the mine (again) and pay creditors – in that order,” he said.

The original of this report by Dineo Faku is on page 18 of Business Report of 24 October 2017

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Tuesday, 24 October 2017 04:11

The New Age reports that the chairperson of the portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Rosina Semenya said forestry workers were treated like slaves in some parts of the industry, with no worker benefits

Semenya said on Sunday directors of firms operating in forestry will be invited to Parliament to explain why conditions of workers in the sector were not improving.

“It is concerning that more than 20 years of democracy people of the southern Cape still worked like slaves with no benefits in the sector,” Semenya said yesterday.

The last meeting of the parliamentary committee next month will be with company directors, owners and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, she said. “What the committee has heard about what is happening in the southern Cape is unacceptable. The sector cannot refuse to transform,”she said.

“We cannot have a situation in our country where companies want to extract resources and yet not empower communities.

It is a shame for our democracy that our people still live in slave-like conditions,” she said. The committee conducted public hearings on the National Forests Amendment Bill in Knysna on Friday. It heard from the communities that women contractors in the forestry industry were being culled and that the living conditions were those of “bush people”.

Semenya said the Bill would address this anomaly and that it would promote participation of women-owned contractors in the industry.

“The valuable input from these communities will assist the process of amending the bill greatly.”

She said the conditions as described by communities were similar to those found in other forest areas throughout the country. The last hearings will be conducted in Limpopo and Mpumalanga next month.

The original of this report appeared on page 13 of The New Age of 23 October 2017

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Saturday, 21 October 2017 12:07

The Star reports that the body of an alleged ‘zama zama’ (illegal miner), said to be Zimbabwean, has been found on the side of a main road in Riverlea.

A group of seven men, said to be friends of the deceased, were at the scene, waiting for the body of their “co-miner” to be fetched.  One of the men, who did not want to be identified, said he received a call from someone who phoned from a private number and informed him a body was “lying on the ground”, and he rushed to the scene.  The men said they had been waiting for the forensic team to arrive and have the body removed since 6am.  Five hours later, the body was still there.

David Mpofu, 36, a cousin of the deceased who resides in Soweto, Orlando, said he suspected that the reason authorities had taken so long to help was that they were foreigners.  “We just want a mortuary to fetch him because our lives are on hold right now and we can’t leave our own lying in the bush,” he said.

According to Mpofu, the dead man had seven children, and they were planning to bury him in Zimbabwe as soon as they had organised finances to make the necessary arrangements.

Constable Thumi Kraai said the SAPS received the alert only at 7am.  She said the man had not yet been identified and investigations were under way.  “No family came forward while we were at the scene,” she said.  “Maybe they were scared because chances are that they too are illegal miners.”

Kraai added that skull of the deceased had been fractured.  A post-mortem would be needed to establish the cause of death, she said.

The original of this report by Siphumelele Khumalo is on page 2 of The Star of 20 October 2017

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Friday, 20 October 2017 06:37

Business Report writes that South Africa’s trade unions have unanimously opposed the current favoured government’s position of a deputy minister of finance chairing the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) board, while calls have mounted for the PIC to invest in projects that promote inclusive economic growth and job creation.

This was revealed yesterday by Yunus Carrim, chairperson of Parliament’s standing committee on finance.

Carrim said in terms of the PIC Memorandum of Incorporation, it was not required that the board chairperson be the deputy minister of finance.

However, he said the unions acknowledged that the minister and deputy minister have to have a relationship with the PIC for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the pensions of public sector workers are in the form of a “defined benefit pension fund”.

“The committee proposes that the minister and deputy minister engage with the trade unions on their proposals in this regard. The committee will take this issue further at the November briefing,” Carrim said.

This followed Tuesday’s briefing by the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), PIC and the trade unions to the committee on the use of public sector workers’ pension funds for investment purposes.

In that meeting the PIC, as per the directive from the Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba earlier this month, published a full list of its unlisted assets, which showed growth of 52 percent to nearly R70 billion in the year to end-March. Gigaba had said his directive was to ensure transparency and further build confidence in the institution.

Stakeholders

In the same communiqué, Gigaba also noted calls by labour unions for a representative of labour on the PIC board. He said he was considering this request and would arrange a meeting with labour stakeholders to discuss the matter.

Sizwe Pamla, the spokesperson for Cosatu, said yesterday that the federation felt the Treasury had too much influence on the PIC and that must change.

“If you want to capture the PIC, you just have to deploy a pliable deputy minister who will then be seconded to chair the PIC board. Parliament as the representative of the people must have a more prominent role in the appointment of the PIC chairperson,” Pamla said.

His views were shared by Fedusa.

Dennis George, the general secretary of Fedusa, said yesterday that it was undesirable for the deputy minister of finance to be the chairperson of PIC as politics grip the decision-making processes at PIC.

“We want the role of the chairperson of the PIC depoliticised and an independent chairperson appointed.

“The other issue is that the current chairperson was implicated in the State of Capture report for his shenanigans while he chaired the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa),” George said.

In September, The Star reported that plans were afoot to oust PIC chief executive Dan Matjila in a “plot” to hijack the institution. The plan, according to The Star’s sources, was for the incumbent chief executive to leave and for an alleged Gupta family appointee to take over. The National Treasury has vehemently denied the allegations and said it supported Matjila.

The Treasury’s assurances of full backing for Matjila have persisted unabated, while some unions have threatened to ditch Africa’s largest fund manager if the speculation of the capture of the PIC proves to be true.

Johan Kruger, the deputy chief executive of Solidarity, said yesterday that the organisation’s members were worried about alleged attempts to capture the PIC.

“We need to get answers to try to reassure them and the public at large that their funds are safe,” said Kruger.

The original of this report by Kabelo Khumalo appeared on page 20 of Business Report of 19 October 2017

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Thursday, 19 October 2017 17:05

In our Thursday roundup, see summaries
of our selection of South African labour-
related stories that appeared since
midafternoon on Wednesday, 18 October 2017.

Read more ...