TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Calls by the Youth League of the ruling African National Congress (ANCYL) for the nationalisation of South Africa's mines amount to “young men flexing their muscles” and represent neither the policy views of the party nor the government, North West Premier and ANC deputy secretary-general Thandi Modise said in Toronto this week.

“They are free to discuss, to debate, to provoke national debates. But on their own they cannot change the policies of the ANC,” she said.

Top party and government officials, including President Jacob Zuma, have said that nationalisation is “not government policy”, and Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has come out strongly against the concept.

But investors and mining firms became increasingly concerned after the ANC's National General Council agreed last year to commission an independent study on the nationalisation proposal.

The powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions also last week expressed support for a policy of nationalisation.

Speaking at an event on Tuesday, Modise played down the importance of the ANC-commissioned study, which will look at the South African mining sector, as well as four other countries where the industry has been partly or fully nationalised.

“You have got young people joining the ANC who do not necessarily understand where the people who drafted the Freedom Charter were, where the people who went to Parliament in 1994 and therefore made certain concessions were, or necessarily where the people who negotiated the settlement of South Africa... in what space they were when we agreed to a mixed economy,” she said.

The ANC has had many “characters” during its history, Modise commented, in reference to firebrand Youth League president Julius Malema.

“It doesn't mean that whatever pronouncement they make is policy.”

Business should be listening to Zuma's statements on nationalisation “and not the young men”, she added.

The ANCYL has proposed that the government take stakes of at least 60% in mines.

“But the ANC is not saying so. It says these are young men who are flexing their muscles, so now let us prove who is clever. Let us go into this discussion.”

The independent study commissioned by the ANC will be completed in time for the National Executive Committee to consider the results and make a recommendation to the national policy conference in 2012.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said in November 2010 that two researchers would be appointed to look into state involvement in mines.

“We should have wrapped up before we go to our policy conference, which means that by December/January, the ANC will have developed its position in terms of what the research says,” Modise told Mining Weekly Online.

“But remember that the government policy is what is there right now, and it stands.”

STOP THE TENSIONS

She also commented that the debate around nationalisation of mines is partly provoked by aggrieved local communities who have not benefited from the development of mines in their regions, she commented.

“You have very rich land, but the people living next to these mines are very poor.”

There is a need to ensure that communities are involved in and benefit from the development of mines, she said, noting that one area of contention is the practice of mines importing labour from other areas of the country, while local communities battle unemployment.

“We need to stop the tensions even before they start,” Modise said.