As the South African mine-nationalisation hot potato continued to be tossed about with seeming defiance by ANC Youth League on Monday, Chamber of Mines (CoM) CE Mzolisi Diliza flew out of Johannesburg on his way to Cape Town in preparation for the CoM’s maiden presentation to the new Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Tuesday.

Although a CoM spokesperson said that the main theme of its presentation would be on illegal mining, he conceded that Diliza and his team might well have to deal with the mine nationalisation issue in Parliament, following Monday’s rash of new statements by spokespersons for the ruling ANC party, trade union Solidarity and the ANC’s Youth League.

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema reiterated – somewhat defiantly some may say in view of ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe statement to Reuters on Thursday that nationalisation was not on the party's agenda – that both the mineral wealth beneath the soil, as well as the extraction operations on the surface should be transferred to the ownership of the people “as a whole”.

Also on Monday, ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte told the South African Press Agency that the nationalisation debate was “a debate we welcome”, which prompted Solidarity trade union spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans to decry the ANC’s seeming preparedness to review its former “not on our agenda” stand.

Said Malema: “We are vividly aware of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, which retains State control of all mineral rights, but what we are calling for is State ownership and control of both the mineral wealth beneath the soil, and the extraction and production of these mineral resources in mines.

“Why is it that South Africa should be criminalised for nationalising our mineral wealth when the big capitalist states like the United States are nationalising their corporations in their countries,” Malema questioned.

"We welcome the fact that the current debates around the utilisation of mineral resources suggest that new and important ideas are emerging that require further debate and discussion. It’s important that, in engendering any new idea within the ANC and broader alliance, we use the resolutions of all our conferences to guide us,” Duarte said.

Solidarity described the ANC’s willingness to reopen the nationalisation debate in the wake of nationalisation statements by trade union federation Cosatu, the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League as “an ominous sign”.

“The statements could not have come at a worse time. Commodity prices have dropped sharply and nearly 35 000 employees in the industry have already lost their jobs this year. Mining companies hate uncertainty and serious investors will not invest in South African mining,” Kleynhans said.

The CoM spokesperson said that until the ANC publicly altered its “not on our agenda” stance on nationalisation, it would not be attaching undue importance to the resurfacing of the nationalisation issue.

The spokesperson added that the CoM’s main focus would be to reappraise the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of the negative impact of illegal mining on the industry, the safety rules it was breaching, and the loss of market it was causing through the theft of between 30 t and 40 t of gold alone each year.

This was hurting an industry that employed half-a-million people and sustained five-million people directly.

It is understood that Harmony Gold, which has been on the receiving end of widely publicised illegal mining activities, as well as diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals, would be among the companies that would also present to the parliamentary committee on Tuesday and Wednesday.