JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Black economic empowerment (BEE) in terms of black people owning and operating mines in South Africa had not been successful to date, said black-owned Kuyasa Mining CEO Ayanda Bam.

Speaking at the Coaltrans conference in Johannesburg, Bam put the failure down to transformation laws and a lack of commitment from some black miners to develop sustainable businesses.

“The government have been giving away prospecting and mining licences to people that are not necessary prepared to develop those mines. They apply for the licences for R500 and then sell it on for $5-million to others.

“Consequently, we see black people driving around in big Land Rovers and with big bank balances, but not running decent, sustainable businesses to the social upliftment of all black people,” he said.

Over the past 16 years, South Africa’s laws have progressed to open the market for all, but in the process, the BEE policy had enriched only a few, rather than lifting people out of poverty.

Bam continued by saying that if such a trend were to continue, in ten years’ time, it would appear as though virtually no transformation had taken place in the mining industry.

“This trend is also making way to the debate around nationalisation,” he said. The issue of nationalising South Africa’s mining assets had been a hot topic in recent years, fuelled mainly by the African National Congress Youth League and its leader Julius Malema.

Bam said that support for Malema’s nationalisation debate was rallied because BEE, as initially intended, had not yet been realised.

Other challenges highlighted in BEE mining included the challenge of rallying funding and technical capabilities.

Bam started a coal mining company in 1995 and is currently still the 100% owner of Kuyasa Mining.

Kuyasa has two wholly owned production subsidiaries, Delmas Coal and Ikhwezi Colliery, which operate adjacent to each other in the Delmas area.