The important concerns facing the mining trade in SA, it emerged at the “Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape City this week, are, surprise, surprise, authorities inactivity and incompetence. By now, even a sympathetic response from President Ramaphosa is suspect. Right here and there folk had been heard muttering: “Decided. What’s in it for the ANC and its cadres?” A gigantic deal of money, it emerges.
By Martin Welz*
The African Mining Indaba in Cape City heard on Monday that mining companies are prepared to expand their investment in projects in SA by 84% – if the authorities tackles the dysfunction plaguing the processing of mining permits and approvals for self-technology projects, as effectively as “constraints” facing our railways and ports.
The Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies, which used to be published in April, ranked SA in 75th repute out of the 84 jurisdictions within the 2021 investment beauty index. This used to be the worst score SA had been given since 2009.
Addressing the convention on Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa hinted the authorities might maybe well now be “open to discussing” requests from mining companies to enable for the non-public operation of Transnet Freight Rail’s dedicated heavy-haul coal, manganese and iron ore export strains.
Rail and port constraints payment mining companies R35bn in misplaced earnings in 2021, per Minerals Council SA.
Did we hear the President expose manganese? That had factual bought an complete fresh that formulation when, nearly simultaneously, investigative journalism neighborhood amaBhungane printed the extent of the ANC’s joint stake with a “listed” Russian oligarch in an extremely winning manganese mine within the Kalahari.
“We favor to make stronger our railways, which have fallen into disrepair, and the ports, which are no longer performing at a stage where we desire them to build,” Ramaphosa agreed.
Minerals Council SA CEO Roger Baxter had acknowledged on Monday that there are R30bn of capital projects looking ahead to approval, but there is a backlog of 4,500 prominent licence purposes at the department of mineral sources & energy, where it takes extra than 350 days for mining and exploration licence purposes to be processed.
Ramaphosa’s response: The authorities moreover understands the urgent favor to repair the regulatory and administrative problems “that had crept into” the software program process for mining and exploration licences.
Leaving sceptics asking: what might maybe well the ANC’s curiosity be in “simplifying” regulations and “speeding up” approvals? Need we be reminded that corruption thrives in unregulated “emergency” environments?
DA leader John Steenhuisen suggested the nation on his return from Ukraine: “The ANC most absolutely does no longer discuss for South Africa on Ukraine, and that used to be a giant phase of my message to the folk I met there.” Nonetheless why does the ANC no longer discuss for the folk of South Africa on the battle in Ukraine?
In March the Democratic Alliance misplaced no time in taunting the ANC that its abstention used to be due to a US-listed Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, is listed as having donated R7.5m to the ANC.
Minute switch, but it now transpires, the DA people had been on the honest note; they factual seriously underestimated the payment of his relationship with the ANC.
The most fresh file from the investigative journalists at amaBhungane decidedly upped the ante.
Already in 2015 amaBhungane raised the challenge of the ANC’s relationship with Putin’s Russia, when they unearthed the fundamental terms of a proposed nuclear energy situation deal with Russia. (“The indicators had been there from early on, fuelling a rising suspicion that Zuma and Putin hoped to bypass a competitive gentle process by smuggling an intensive agreement in thru the aid door,” they worthy there. )
Solutions of that proposed deal that mad suspicion had been:
- It contained extra clauses favourable to the bidder (Russia) than any of the opposite four bids (from France, China, america and South Korea).
- It contained what amounted to a veto clause as an alternative of any other bidder from working with South Africa with out Russian consent.
- It required the South African authorities to earn a “particular, favourable regime” in tax and “other monetary issues” for the Russian bidder – on one trillion rand electricity technology deal that might maybe well steal decades to complete – and, many think, would most likely bankrupt the nation.
Why would the Russians were so assured of their demands? In this present day’s South Africa, the query would be phrased in any other case: what used to be/is in it for the ANC and its cadres in excessive locations?
AmaBhungane’s most fresh file published this week affords at the very least a extra plausible cause at the aid of Ramaphosa’s abstention on the UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and his sing with facilitating the shipping of manganese.
The file launches in with a blunt assertion: “United Manganese of Kalahari (UMKL) is repute to turn into an unbridled cash cow for the ANC, particularly its funding entrance Chancellor Apartment. UMK’s riches and its Russian connections earn a solid motive for the party’s equivocation on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Financial records from Cyprus expose that UMK paid out a staggering R2.4bn in dividends in 2020.”
Chancellor Apartment’s indirect 22% portion of these dividends would have amounted to R528m. It has since increased its stake within the firm by procuring out one other shareholder, in suppose that dividends totalling quite lots of of thousands and thousands in 2021 and beyond will continue to creep into the ANC’s most provocative declared donor.
This might maybe be inferred from the accounts of the Russian half of of the UMK joint project, a Cyprus-registered entity called Recent African Manganese Investments (NAMI) all over which Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg (the same) owns shares in UMK.
In 2018 Vekselberg and six other filthy rich Russian “oligarchs” perceived to be stop to the Kremlin had been made Particular Designated Nationals by the US authorities. Their assets within the US had been frozen.
In March this one year, following the invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions against Vekselberg and others had been intensified along with his yacht and jet, together allegedly value $180m, being frozen. The yacht, a 2000 ton floating palace named TANGO, is registered within the Cook Islands. After the freezing, the FBI went a step further and seized the super-boat in April.
The South African held 51% in UMK is owned by Majestic Silver Trading 40 (MST) which is a politically connected South African consortium together with Chancellor Apartment, Pitsa Ya Setshaba Holdings (PST) and a Kalahari Neighborhood Have faith.
Chancellor Apartment used to be acknowledged as an ANC entrance in 2005 when it used to be rapidly placing deals within the mining and energy sectors, as soon as in a whereas below questionable conditions.
Right this moment it no longer makes any secret of its characteristic. What has escaped perceive is the evidently good significance of UMK within the scheme of issues. The dimensions of dividends, printed within the monetary statements of NAMI expose that the ANC is unlikely to have any comparable real offer of cash: R15m every from Chancellor Apartment, UMK and MST, making an complete of R45m per one year.
AmaBhungane concludes: “This [..] formulation that the relationship with a supposed Kremlin insider is a truly important to [ANC] party funds.”
[Extracts from amaBhungane latest report published with permission. You can read the full report on their website at www.amabhunghane.org]Learn moreover:
- The value of ANC-Russian loyalty – Katzenellenbogen
- ‘Name a battle a battle’ – Ambassador for Ukraine tells SA
- SA’s untangle the parable surrounding the ANC’s stance of neutrality within the Russian-Ukrainian battle
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