JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Mosebenzi Zwane is South Africa’s new Mineral Resources Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle that saw Ngoako Ramatlhodi’s 16-month spell come to an abrupt end.

Chamber of Mines of South Africa president Mike Teke and CEO Roger Baxter said in a statement on Wednesday that the chamber looked forward to meeting Zwane at the earliest opportunity to hear his perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

The chamber added that it had appreciated Ramatlhodi’s openness to frank conversations, which were invariably based on striving to achieve the best for the mining industry and its contribution to the country and its people.

Ramatlhodi, who has been moved to the Public Service and Administration portfolio left vacant after the death of Collins Chabane in March, made headlines earlier this month when two separate Sunday newspaper articles stated that, during the meeting of the National Mining Consultative Forum for a Sustainable Mining Industry convened by President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential guest house in Pretoria earlier this month, he had crossed swords with South African Mining Development Association president Bridgette Radebe.

The Sunday Independent stated that Radebe had spoken out against the former Minister’s ratification of the sale to the JSE-listed Exxaro of Total Coal South Africa and City Press stated that she had raised the issue of Ramatlhodi’s shareholding in a platinum asset, to which the then Minister had countered that the interest had been placed in a blind trust to insulate it from potential conflict of interest.

When Ramatlhodi was appointed in May last year, Business Unity South Africa raised concerns around the appointment of a person without mining experience to a portfolio fraught with serious issues and experiencing a serious contraction from a previous position of dominance in the global resources environment.

BDLive reported on Wednesday that the Cabinet reshuffle had arisen ahead of the African National Congress’s (ANC's) national general council next month, where progress on policy resolutions made at the Mangaung 2012 conference would be assessed.

It added that the appointment of a Free State politician to the position of Mineral Resources Minister was viewed as a move by the President to recognise the province's contribution to national politics, following the emergence of a factional group of provincial premiers — dubbed the "premier league" — from the Free State, North West and Mpumalanga.

News24Wire reported that the Cabinet reshuffle, announced in a statement at 20:20 on Tuesday night, had even taken insiders by surprise and a report in the Sowetan described the new Mineral Resources Minister - ANC MP Zwane, a former Free State Agriculture MEC - as being “controversial”, stemming from his alleged involvement in the Gupta family’s private jet landing at the Waterkloof military airbase with wedding guests in 2013, as well a Free State dairy farm tender in which members of the Gupta family were also allegedly involved.

Zwane was recently redeployed to Parliament after earlier this month leaving his post in the Free State, where he also served in provincial economic development, tourism and environmental affairs capacities.

He is expected to be sworn in as Mineral Resources Minister at the Union Buildings today.

Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has been the acting Minister of Public Service and Administration since Chabane’s death in a car accident on the N1 outside Polokwane on March 15.