Honourable Chairperson
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources, Ntate Sefako
Members of the National Council of Provinces
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be in this House today to deliver Budget Vote 29: Department of Mineral Resources.

Budget allocation

Honourable Members,

The Department is allocated R1,9 billion for the 2018/19 financial year. The funding allocated to the Department and its portfolio of entities remains inadequate, for us to effectively carry out our mandate. This anomaly must be addressed so that we are better able to be a catalyst for the growth and development of the economy. We are mindful of the fiscal constraints the country faces and will, therefore, strive to deliver with the limited resources at our disposal.

Policy update

A substantial amount of our work happens in provinces, where South Africans interface directly with the Department through its regional offices. That is where the impact of our work is most felt by our people.

We have recently concluded country-wide community consultations on the Mining Charter. We visited mining communities in all nine provinces, that is, Emalahleni in Mpumalanga, Lephalale and Burgersfort in Limpopo, Kathu in the Northern Cape, Saldhana in the Western Cape, Klerksdorp and Rustenburg in the North West, King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape, Carletonville in Gauteng, Welkom in the Free State and Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal.

We are encouraged by the positive contributions made, both written and verbal, that have been invaluable. We will soon host a Summit to present the draft Charter before it is taken through the relevant Cabinet processes and gazetted.

During these visits, we also received inputs on the Department and how our stakeholders think we can better serve them. The issues raised in this regard are receiving the necessary attention and form part of our programme of action. We are committed to engage more with the key stakeholders we serve, that is, communities, mining companies and mineworkers. You will therefore be seeing more of us in the various provinces, as we bring our services closer to the people.

The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill has been tabled before the NCOP for processing. We appeal to Members of this House to assist in prioritising the finalisation of this Bill. This is important because, together with the gazetting of the Mining Charter, enacting it will go a long way to contributing to policy and regulatory certainty. Such certainty will lead to increased confidence in our mining sector, resulting in the growth, transformation and competitiveness. Therefore, making South Africa an investment destination of choice for mining and upstream petroleum.

See attachments for the full speech.