[miningmx.com] — BEING director-general of the department of mineral resources (DMR) is a challenge in itself because you’re regulating a sector which creates billionaires.
It will inadvertently lead to accusations from those who’ve lost out that you’re playing God.
These are some of the realities outgoing director general of the DMR Sandile Nogxina said he faced during his 13-year tenure – he has been the longest DG of any department in South Africa post-1994 – which comes to an end on Thursday.
In a farewell interview with journalists on Tuesday, Nogxina gave his own perspective on his time in office, the state of the mining industry and the debate which is raging on nationalisation.
Most of these were frank.
“Everything that happened (at the DMR) since 1998 took place on my watch,’ he said. “I’m responsible for it – the good and the bad.’
Equally candid was his assessment of why nationalisation so quickly became part of the national discourse.
“The mining industry brought this debate upon themselves,’ he said. “If they had done what they said they’d do we wouldn’t have had this. Communities wouldn’t have wondered how they’re benefiting from mining because they would have seen it.
“Government adopted BEE (black economic empowerment) as an instrument to achieve change. If you reject that, people will call for a more radical policy.’
Yet Nogxina also admitted regulatory shortfalls added to the current state of affairs, in that both the Mining Charter and Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) created ambiguities which had set the sector up for failure concerning transformation objectives.
“If you structure a deal only (to attain) compliance, sustainability becomes a problem. Many times it is the structure of the deal that premeditates the collapse of the deal,’ in reference to equity transactions. “And many BEEs were just too eager to sign.’
Yet he said criticism of the department’s internal processes was sometimes overblown.
“Stories about corruption and inefficiency (at the DMR) became legend. It got to a point where it was often given as a reason for non-compliance. There are always inefficiencies; also in the private sector. But the issue here is that you regulate vested interests where your receive 1,000 applications for one piece of property. That is why I have more enemies than friends.’
Nogxina admitted however that some of the regional offices were run like personal fiefdoms.
He was still confident that a solution to the nationalisation debate could be found, with the sector achieving the charter’s targets by 2014 being a very significant step.
“The raging of the debate will have some casualties, but we need it to go its full course. We cannot filibuster about change.’
Nogxina said he and other departmental officials told investors during a London roadshow earlier in June that they would have to be patient.
“We need to explain to the world what is happening here and why,’ he said, saying the debate would be bedded by December 2012 when the issue comes to a head at the ANC’s elective congress in Mangaung.
Nogxina will continue to serve as a special adviser to Mines Minister Susan Shabangu from July 1.
